I-T Raids, Searches Chopper of Abhishek, Gets Zero

Kolkata: The Income Tax (I-T) department on Sunday raided and searched the helicopter of Diamond Harbour Trinamul Congress MP and candidate Abhishek Banerjee, against whom BJP is yet to field a candidate in the Lok Sabha Election, in the city.

The central agency’s step however turned out to be an exercise in futility as the I-T department found nothing after allegedly confronting and threatening Mr Banerjee's security personnel to detain the chopper during a heated altercation.

The helicopter was on a trial run at Behala Flying Club for the TMC national general secretary’s visit on Monday to Haldia in East Midnapore, the home turf of a leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari, of West Bengal for his Lok Sabha Election campaign.

Suddenly an I-T team turned up there and raided the helicopter after restraining Mr Banerjee’s security personnel, the TMC alleged before accusing the central agency sleuths of “opening every bag and searching every nook and corner of the chopper.”

The verbal duel unfolded as Mr Banerjee’s security staff started recording videos of the raid. The TMC blamed the I-T team for getting the videos deleted forcibly. When they did not find anything, they, out of frustration, did not let the chopper fly for the longest time, it claimed.

Mr Banerjee's security personnel then wanted to know the reason. The I-T team however had another round of verbal duel with them and threatened to detain the chopper illegally, according to TMC.

Fuming over the raid on the Bengali New Year's Day, Mr Banerjee posted on X-handle, “Instead of removing the @NIA_India DG and SP, @ECISVEEP and @BJP4India chose to deploy MINIONS FROM IT to search and raid my chopper and security personnel today, resulting in NO FINDINGS.”

He added, “The ZAMINDARS can exert all their might but Bengal's SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE will never waver.” The I-T department has yet to comment about its action. State BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said, “The I-T department must have had some information. Only they can speak about it. I am not their spokesperson.”

The TMC later lodged a complaint against the I-T with the Election Commission of 'high-handedness' over the raid.