A team of officials from the National Investigation, who went to arrest two accused in a bomb blast case from December 2022 in an East Midnapore village on Saturday morning came under attack from the villagers.

The NIA team had picked up Balaicharan Maity and Manobrata Jana, who the agency accused of “actively participated in the conspiracy to make crude bombs and had extended support for the same” early in the morning and were on the way out when the incident took place.

Though, the central agency did not reveal any political identity of those arrested, Mamata claimed the two were her party agents and questioned the Narendra Modi government why it was contesting the polls with the aid of central probe agencies.

Maity is the area president of the Trinamul, while Jana is a local leader. Both had twice ignored summons from the NIA.

The Bhupatinagar incident comes exactly four months after an Enforcement Directorate team that went to raid the premises of the former Trinamul leader Sheikh Shahjahan and Shankar Addya in North 24-Parganas Sandeshkhali on January 5 and came under attack.

In December 2022, an explosion took place at the house of one Rajkumar Manna in Naruabilla village of East Midnapore’s Bhupatinagar. Manna and two others Biswajit Gayen and Buddhadeb Manna were critically injured and later succumbed.

The state police had filed a case on December 3, 2022. Following a directive from the Calcutta High Court, the NIA took up the probe on June 4, 2023.

A statement issued by the agency from New Delhi said, the probe had revealed the involvement of several people including the two arrested Jana of Naruabila and Maity of Ninaruya Analberia, who have been named as “key conspirators”.

The NIA said the team had faced “stiff resistance” from the villagers when the officials went to make the arrests.

The team had carried out raids at five different locations including the residence of Jana. While the team was leaving the village with the arrested duo, villagers including women surrounded the vehicle and pelted stones at it.

The NIA, in its statement said, one team member sustained minor injury while the vehicle was damaged.

“One NIA team member suffered minor injury and the agency’s official vehicle was also damaged as some miscreants in the crowd assaulted them. The aggressive crowd tried to stop the NIA team and its security component from moving towards Bhupatinagar police station to complete the arrest formalities,” the statement read.

Later a complaint was lodged with the Bhupatinagar police station.

A few hours later while addressing a poll campaign for the Balurghat Lok Sabha seat at Tapan, Mamata questioned the raids.

“Is the EC conducting the polls or the NIA or CBI or ED?” asked Mamata, as she dismissed the explosion that claimed three lives as one involving “chocolate bombs”.

“If the BJP is so confident of coming back to power with 400-plus seats, why are our agents being arrested?” asked Mamata as she dismissed the explosion in December 2022 that claimed three lives as one involving “chocolate bombs.”

“Just before the elections our agents are being arrested in connection with chocolate bombs. All the central agencies have been deployed against us,” Mamata said. “The NIA and CBI are BJP’s siblings, while the ED and IT are funding boxes.”

Mamata defended the actions of the villagers during her campaign speech.

“The attack was not carried out by women of Bhupatinagar. It was by the National Investigation Agency,” she said. “Will the women sit back if they are attacked?”

From the dais Mamata instructed the party workers to ensure the ruling Trinamul’s poll machinery did not suffer because of the actions by the central probe agencies.

“Make alternate arrangements. Keep the second-tier and third–tier (of political workers) ready. If required women will sit in the booths (on the polling day),” she said.

Referring to her defeat during the 2021 Assembly polls in Nandigram, Mamata said the “conspiracy” at Bhupatinagar indicated BJP was trying the same strategy again.

“They caused loadshedding in Nandigram, officers were changed (to defeat me). The case is on in the court. They should remember, the same tactic does not work every time,” Mamata said.