Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday that there was “no evidence” to back the central agencies’ claim that “arms and explosives” had been recovered from the hideout of a close aide to suspended Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan in Sandeshkhali.

Stressing that “law and order is a state subject”, the chief minister wondered why the CBI had conducted the raid on the alleged hideout of Abu Taleb Sheikh on Friday without informing Bengal police.

“Even if a firecracker goes off in Bengal, the NIA, the CBI or the NSG are coming to investigate. It seems that a war is going on. The state police were not informed about the central agency raid though law and order is a state subject,” Mamata said during a public meeting held in support of Shatrughan Sinha, the Trinamool Congress candidate of the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency.

The chief minister, who has always been vocal against the central agencies, expressed doubts about the veracity of the claims by the CBI which issued a statement on the recovery.

“The state police were not informed about the raid. It is not known what was found. There was no evidence. The seized items might have been brought by them (CBI) in a car,” Mamata said.

Her comments reflected the narrative that Trinamool — which filed a written complaint with the Election Commission questioning the CBI’s handling of the operation on a day the second phase of the polls was held — would spin as part of a strategy to contest the allegations that Shahjahan had amassed arms and explosives.

In the complaint, the ruling party of Bengal described the CBI’s operations as an “unscrupulous raid” on an empty location in Sandeshkhali on the polling day to tarnish the image of Trinamool.

The CBI claimed on Friday that it had seized arms and ammunition, including a police service revolver and foreign-made firearms, during the searches in Sandeshkhali.

The searches were conducted in connection with the January attack on an Enforcement Directorate (ED) team by a mob that was allegedly instigated by Shahjahan, who was arrested by the state police on February 29.

Several teams of the CBI, the bomb detection squad of the National Security Guard (NSG) and paramilitary forces had taken part in the searches at the village — a riverine delta — on the fringes of the Sunderbans in North 24-Parganas district.

During the rally, the chief minister also tried to contest the BJP’s narrative of a breakdown in law and order in the state by claiming that her government initiated necessary steps whenever there was any major incident.

“I had sent police officers and taken proper steps whenever we received complaints,” she said, before stressing that the BJP was trying to use Sandeshkhali for political gains.

“The truth will come out soon. I will not say more on this as the election is going on. But you (BJP) tell me when you attacked a police officer on duty for wearing a pagdi (headgear for Sikhs) and called him a Khalistani, did you do the right thing? Don’t you feel ashamed for this?” she asked.

Mamata also told people to ask the BJP candidate from Asansol (S.S. Ahluwalia) why he did not contest from his previous constituency where he had won in 2019.

“I know how he had won the last election. Now he has come to Asansol and will apply the same tactics here. I will tell you to be alert. If he comes to give you money, ask him to pay Rs 15 lakh, which Modiji had promised. You (Modi) promised to give Rs 15 lakh after becoming Prime Minister but you didn’t,” said Mamata.

BJP nominee from Burdwan-Durgapur Dilip Ghosh gave a strong rebuttal to Mamata before alleging that Shahjahan used to smuggle firearms from Bangladesh with the help of Rohingya refugees."The central forces and agencies had recovered such a huge cache of arms... The state police were supposed to do it. Everybody has now come to know that Shahjahan used to procure and smuggle foreign firearms. The chief minister is now trying to cover up the incident by levelling false allegations against us,” said Ghosh in Durgapur.

CM injured

Earlier in the day, the chief minister suffered a mild injury after she stumbled and fell inside the helicopter while she was on her way to address the campaign rally at Kulti near Asansol. Sources said Mamata had been pulled up by her security guards immediately.

She later left for two back-to-back rallies in Asansol and Kulti.