Trinamool Congress leader and MP Mahua Moitra wrote a letter to the Election Commission on Sunday, March 24, urging the poll body to create a framework for CBI conduct during the model code of conduct. She claimed the CBI carried out four consecutive raids on her various properties in West Bengal to create a ‘hindrance’ in her poll campaign.
On Saturday, March 24, the CBI executed searches at Mahua’s addresses in Kolkata, Krishnanagar, and Karimpur, associated with the alleged cash-for-query case for which she was expelled from the Lok Sabha.
“Two out of 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 is my ‘Elec. campaigning offense’ and the other is my ‘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,” Mahua wrote in a letter to CBI.
Although the CBI could not find anything, the raids created a furor across social media platforms, which created doubt and contempt for her among the right-thinking members of society. “Needless to mention, such a smear campaign perpetrated by the CBI has solely and unjustly enriched my political opponents at my cost and peril,” the Trinamool leader said.
She further said that she understands that the CBI is required to carry out investigations but questioned the timing and methodology that creates “a sufficient amount of suspicion that they are dancing to the tunes of political dicta.”
Claiming the raid was unprecedented and deceiving, Mahua prompted the Election Commission that the poll body took proactive steps to ensure a level playing field for all political parties. “For this purpose, a central investigating agency that is under the control of the ruling dispensation at the center must be appropriately saddled to ensure that, in the name of investigation, they are not carrying out political bidding that favors the party in power at the center,” she wrote.
