Alleging “unauthorized surveillance”, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at Centre on Monday for “forcefully entering into the New Bhanga Bhavan in Delhi and seizing close circuit camera footage” from the premises.

“One can always ask for permission to inspect the contents at my property. You may have put a requisition, but I did not grant you that access. Despite not having that permission, Gujarat Police, along with the Delhi Police, illegally entered our premises on Saturday night and took away all our CCTV footage. Shouldn't the media question such acts?” Banerjee said at a government programme at Sagardighi in Murshidabad on Monday.

“Who stays at the New Banga Bhavan? I occasionally stay there when I am traveling to Delhi alone although I mostly stay at Abhishek (Banerjee)’s place. The Governor stays there. So does the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court and other judges. Some members of the media also stay at that place. The footage have details of who they have met at the premises, which friends they have spoken to. All of that has now been seized,” she said.

“Who gave them those rights? Where did they get such arrogance from? I am not in favour of bulldozers. But know this, if someone tries to bulldoze democracy in this manner then I will ensure that instead of a bulldozer you will face closure,” the chief minister warned, visibly exasperated.

Talking about party national spokesperson Saket Gokhale’s arrest from Banga Bhavan on 29 December last year, Banerjee said, without naming him: “One of our social workers, an activist with our social media network, was arrested from Banga Bhavan premises by Gujarat Police in an illegal fashion. He was also arrested from an airport in Rajasthan when he was headed for Ahmedabad. He was re-arrested after the court granted him bail. I was told sometime back that he was also arrested from Banga Bhavan.”

Banerjee was referring to Gokhale’s third arrest inside a month by the Gujarat Police when he was picked up from Banga Bhavan in connection with an embezzlement case. The leader was previously arrested by Gujarat Police from Jaipur in connection with a tweet endorsing "fake news" on the Morbi bridge collapse and re-arrested by Morbi police immediately after he was granted bail.

Turning towards the state chief secretary, HK Dwivedi, who was present on stage during Monday’s programme, Banerjee said: “Let me tell my chief secretary that Banga Bhavan is a property of the West Bengal government. If anyone goes there without our permission, we will also have to take legal steps. Let the law take its own course.”

A source with the resident commissioner’s office of the Bengal government in Delhi confirmed the police action at New Banga Bhavan premises on Saturday evening stating that the police forced its way in despite being stopped at the gate. “The police made a copy of the CC camera footage from the computer hard drive and left,” the officer stated on condition of anonymity.

The person, however, failed to confirm which state the personnel were from or the purpose behind collecting the footage.

In a show of solidarity with businessman and TMC’s Murshidabad MLA Zakir Hossain, whose properties were raided by the Income Tax which seized over 11 crore rupees in cash last week, Banerjee used the government stage in that district to target the Centre.

“If Zakir errs on the side of the law, take appropriate action. But what about the livelihood of the 20,000 bidi workers he employs? Will the banks pay their salary? How many people actually have bank accounts in villages?” she said.

Not failing to repeat her most perturbing issue of the moment, the chief minister said the Centre owed Rs 6,000 crores to Bengal under the MNREGA head and alleged that the state faced discrimination over the disbursement of funds.

“Other states are getting money for the 100 days’ work scheme. Yet we are running the scheme without Central assistance despite claiming the top spot in MNREGA implementation,” she said.

“We will not be cowed down so easily. If the Centre fails to deliver, I will raise the money somehow,” she declared.