TMC moves to poll panel alleging BJP-CBI-NSG conspiracy in Sandeshkhali raid

• TMC moves Election Commission against CBI's raid, alleging a BJP conspiracy to tarnish party image
• Asserts the BJP of conspiring with the CBI and NSG 
• Allegations also include CBI of deliberately raiding Sandeshkhali without informing state rather informing media in advance 

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has taken a strong stand against CBI's recent raids in Sandeshkhali. Moving the Election Commission to address what it perceives as an attempt to tarnish the party's image during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, TMC alleged a BJP conspiracy behind the raid. It also accused the CBI and NSG of planting the weapons recovered during the raid.

"While second phase lok sabha elections were going on, the CBI deliberately carried out an unscrupulous raid at an empty location in Sandeshkhali. Media reports suggest that the CBI called in additional forces including the bomb squad of the National Security Guard (NSG)," its letter said.

It claims that the CBI did not inform the state government or the police beforehand and brought along additional forces, including the NSG bomb squad, without coordination with the state's own bomb disposal unit. Moreover, the party asserts that the media was pre-informed about the raid. 

"It is further astonishing to notice that media personnel were already present during such the raid even before the State administration arrived at the spot. At such a point in time, it was already nationwide news that weapons had been recovered during the raid. There is no way of knowing with certainty, as to whether these weapons were indeed recovered during the search and seizure procedure or whether they were surreptitiously planted by the CBI/NSG," the party added.

The CBI said in a statement that it had recovered three foreign-made revolvers, one foreign-made pistol, one Indian revolver, one Colt official issue police revolver, one country-made pistol, 120 nine mm bullets, 50 cartridges of .45 calibre, 50 cartridges of .380, and eight cartridges of .32 bore.