The National Investigation Agency officials who visited Bhupatinagar in East Midnapore on Saturday have been accused of molesting a woman while arresting one of the two accused.

NIA officials on Saturday arrested local Trinamul functionaries Monobrata Jana and Balai Charan Maity in connection with a December 2022 blast, while themselves coming under attack from a group of villagers.

A woman has lodged a complaint with Bhupatinagar police station alleging the NIA officials outraged her modesty after forcibly entering her home on the pretext of a raid.

"A case of alleged outraging of modesty under Sections 354 and 354B of the IPC along with several other charges including trespassing, mischief and grievous hurt has been drawn up against the NIA officers," a senior district police officer said.

The NIA has denied the charges of "unlawful actions levelled against" it and described the controversy as "unfortunate". Senior officials of the agency said they would move court seeking a stay on the molestation FIR.

Bengal police had earlier drawn up a similar FIR against the Enforcement Directorate officials who had been attacked in Sandeshkhali on January 5 when they arrived to raid the house of Trinamul strongman Sheikh Shahjahan (now suspended from the party and arrested).

Didar Baksh Mollah, a Sandeshkhali resident, had lodged the complaint accusing the ED officials of theft, assaulting people and outraging the modesty of women.

Six days after this FIR was lodged in Sandeshkhali, Calcutta High Court passed an interim stay on proceedings in connection with the case.

The molestation complaint in Bhupatinagar was filed within hours of the NIA lodging an FIR at the same police station accusing a group of unnamed villagers of attacking agency officials and preventing them from performing their duties.

A group of men and women villagers had allegedly attacked the NIA team with tree branches and sticks during their early morning raid and damaged the windshield of their vehicle.

On Sunday, NIA investigators summoned three others accused in the blast case -- Subir Maity, Naba Kumar Panda and Manab Kumar Parua -- for questioning at its Calcutta office on Monday.

The agency team that went to Bhupatinagar on Saturday had visited the homes of the three but they were missing, officials said. They added that the trio had earlier been summoned in March but didn't show up.

In her police complaint, the Bhupatinagar woman has alleged that "the NIA team and CRPF force" entered the home of one of the accused at around 3.30am on Saturday after breaking the door down while using "slang language".

She has said the officers and the accompanying (central) forces assaulted her and the accused "with fists and blows" and later outraged her modesty.

When some of the women present protested, the "said officers and forces" assaulted them too and outraged their modesty, the complaint says.

In an official release on Sunday, the NIA said its actions had been "bona fide, lawful and legally mandated, as a part of its ongoing investigation...."

"The (NIA) team had come under violent attack by an unruly mob when they had gone to conduct searches in Naruabila village on Saturday," the release said.

"The attack was completely unprovoked and uncalled for, and an attempt to obstruct NIA from carrying out its lawful duties…. The searches were conducted in five locations in the presence of independent witnesses and under the security cover provided by CRPF, which included lady constables...."