Mahua Complains to EC Against CBI Raids and ‘Coercive Steps’

Kolkata: Expelled Trinamul Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Sunday lodged a complaint with the Election Commission (EC) against the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for raiding her addresses in West Bengal in the 'cash for query' case to create a “negative perception” about her in the Lok Sabha Election.

In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, Ms Moitra, who is contesting as a TMC candidate at Krishnanagar seat in Nadia for the second time, also accused the CBI of “harassing” her and “throttling” her LS poll campaign and sought no “coercive steps” against her during the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) period.

Ms Moitra alleged, “Despite knowing about my candidacy, the CBI has deliberately chosen to conduct four consecutive raids on four of my separate properties. This was done with the sole intention of hindering my campaign process and creating a negative perception about me in the run-up to poll day. It is pertinent to mention that the so-called search and seizure operations conducted by the CBI resulted in absolutely zero fruition as the CBI admittedly went back empty-handed. The same is evident from the "Search List" (s), all dated 23.03.2024, copies of which are collectively enclosed herewith. This is not surprising as such illegal measures have been undertaken by the CBI to please their political masters at the Centre…”

She also added that a central investigating agency “must be appropriately saddled to ensure that in the name of investigation, they are not carrying out political biddings which favour the party in power at the Centre.” The former TMC MP then pointed out that two out of the four premises “where the illegal raids were carried out by the CBI,” were her “Elec. Campaigning office" and "MP office.”

“Hence, there is no doubt that the CBI was unequivocally aware that their actions were targeted to throttle my election campaign efforts and to thereby illegally harass me. Though the CBI left my properties empty-handed, they were able to create furore across media platforms and thus, create doubt and contempt about myself amongst the right-thinking members of the society. Needless to mention, such smear campaign perpetrated by the CBI has solely and unjustly enriched my political opponents at my cost and peril.”

According to Ms Moitra, “...the timing and methodology employed by the CBI creates at the very minimum, a sufficient amount of suspicion that they are dancing to the tunes of political dicta. However, in a healthy democracy, there is no room for such suspicion and each and every candidate ought to have an equal and fair opportunity to win the election.”

She then requested the EC to “issue appropriate guidelines and/or create a framework vis-à-vis the conduct of the investigation by central investigating agencies including CBI” and direct them to “take no coercive steps against candidates/political functionaries…” during the MCC period.