‘Helicopter search OK, but…’: Trinamool’s Abhishek Banerjee

Purba Medinipur (West Bengal):

Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee clarified that the Election Commission or the Income Tax were free to search his helicopter but officials could not stop them and the helicopter was not allowed to take a trial run even if nothing was found after the search.

“I don’t have any problem with the search or seizure of the helicopter. The Election Commission can do that. My problem is that even if they didn’t get anything after the search, they didn’t give permission for the trial run. Income tax did. Mr. Banerjee said on Monday “We have no right to do this,” said a press conference held in the Tamluk constituency. We will take action in accordance with the law. “

The Trinamool Congress on Sunday claimed that officials from the Income Tax Department raided party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s helicopter at the Behala Flying Club.

“With five days to go until elections, huge amount of cash was seized from the car of a BJP leader in Jalpaiguri. What do income tax officials do? Raid Abhishek Banerjee’s chopper while ECI remains silent Bystanders. The irony is that this is all happening on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi claims to fight corruption,” the Trinamool Congress posted on X.

TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee also targeted the Election Commission over the incident and said the BJP’s poll body decided to deploy “pawns” of the income tax department.

“Today, instead of removing the NIA DG and SP, the ECI and the BJP chose to deploy their petty soldiers to search and raid my helicopters and security personnel, only to find nothing. ZAMINDARS can try their best but the spirit of resistance in Bengal will never waver ,”He said.

However, sources denied that any search was conducted on the TMC leader’s helicopter, adding that “media reports in this regard are completely misleading”.

Sources said: “The Income Tax department has not initiated any search/raid or investigation or any enforcement action against any helicopter/aircraft of TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee. Media reports in this regard are completely misleading. “

Sources further said that Behala Flying Club did not have any frisking/security equipment or scanners working and the state nodal officer of the Income Tax department brought the situation to the attention of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on April 4. .

Sources said that during a routine check based on air traffic control information at Behala Flying Club/Airport in Kolkata on April 14, a Quick Response Team (QRT) went to the airport staff to collect certain relevant information.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)