'Dancing to the tunes of political dicta': Mahua Moitra Writes to EC Against CBI Raids

TMC leader Mahua Moitra accused the central agency of "harassing and throttling" her Lok Sabha poll campaign through "illegal acts".

Kolkata (West Bengal): Trinamool Congress Leader Mahua Moitra wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday (March 24) protesting the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) four consecutive raids on her numerous residences in West Bengal. She also suggested that the election body establish a framework for CBI behaviour in the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

In the letter, she termed the raids "illegal and disproportionate acts" and alleged that they aimed at "harassing and throttling" her Lok Sabha poll campaign.

"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," she alleged in the letter.

The TMC has put Moitra forward once more from her parliamentary seat in Krishnanagar. She said that the central probe agency "illegally raided" several locations, including her MP officer and election campaigning office.

"Two out of the four premises where the illegal raids were carried out by the CBI were admittedly used for official purposes and the same is evident from the CBI's own 'Search List(s)', wherein it has acknowledged that one property in the election campaigning office and the other is my MP office. Hence there is no doubt that the CBi was unequivocally aware that their actions were targetted to throttle my election campaign efforts and to thereby illegally harass me," she wrote in the letter.

Moitra claimed that the raids created a furor across media platforms and thus raised doubts about her, even though the CBI left empty-handed. The Krishnanagar-based Trinamool candidate stated that while she acknowledged the CBI's necessity to carry out investigations, she questioned the technique and timing, "raising sufficient amounts of suspicion that the agency is dancing to the tunes of political dicta".

"For this purpose, a central investigating agency which is under the control of the ruling dispensation at the Centre must be appropriately saddled to ensure that in the name of investigation they are not carrying out political bidding which favour the party in power at the Centre," Moitra further wrote.

In December 2023, Moitra, a sitting member of the Lok Sabha from Krishnanagar, was dismissed for "unethical conduct" after a Parliamentary Committee investigation alleged that shereceiving bribes in exchange for votes. She was charged with accepting money for posing inquiries within the House. She has been fielded by the TMC once more from the same seat.