The recovery of arms and ammunition in multiple locations in West Bengal's Sandeshkhali on Friday sparked a verbal duel between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP, with the ruling party alleging that the saffron camp was orchestrating a plot to discredit the state during the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP was quick to hit back, accusing the TMC of shielding terrorists and having a tacit understanding with anti-national elements.

The CBI seized arms and ammunition, including foreign-made firearms, during search operations at multiple locations in Sandeshkhali in connection with the January attack on an Enforcement Directorate team by a mob allegedly instigated by now-suspended TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh, officials said.

Teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the bomb detection squad, the National Security Guard (NSG), the central paramilitary forces, and the West Bengal Police were part of the search operations at the village—a riverine delta—on the fringes of the Sundarbans in North 24 Parganas district.

"We don’t know what has been recovered or not. Whatever the CBI is saying, we doubt it. The matter should be probed properly. The BJP is using central agencies to malign us. It can be a sinister ploy by the BJP to malign us during elections. It can be a well-designed campaign by the BJP," TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said.

During the search, the CBI seized three foreign-made revolvers and 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, 120 nine mm cartridges, 50 cartridges of .380, and eight cartridges of .32, the spokesperson said.

Senior BJP leader Amit Malviya said the arms haul is nothing but an act of terror, waging war against the nation.

"The CBI, during the raid, in connection with the attack on ED officials, recovered a huge amount of arms and ammunition from Sariberia, in Sandeshkhali. Mamata Banerjee, as Home Minister of West Bengal, must explain why the state is seeing a huge stockpile of illegal weapons," he posted on X.

"It is dangerous. NSG has been deployed but WB Govt has approached the Supreme Court to preclude the CBI from investigating the matter,” he said wondering why Mamata Banerjee is trying to “protect terrorists” who have stocked firearms in such large quantities.

BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said TMC’s appeasement politics has led to "anti-national elements" having a free run in the state.

The search was launched in connection with the three FIRs that the CBI had registered related to the attack on the team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in Sandeshkhali on January 5 when it had gone to raid the premises of Sheikh in connection with an alleged ration scam.

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