PM Modi slams TMC after attack against NIA officials in West Bengal: 'Open license to terrorise...'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) "wants their heavyweight and corrupt leaders to get a free license to spread terrorism". His statement came a day after a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was attacked in Bhupatinagar village of West Bengal's Purba Medinipur district.

"When central investigative agencies come here, the TMC attacks them...it's a party that crushes the law and the Constitution of the country...you saw what happened in Sandeshkhali. Everyone in the country knows it," PM Modi said at a rally in Jalpaiguri.

NIA officials were allegedly heckled in West Bengal's Purba Medinipur district on Saturday as they continued their investigation in the Bengal 2022 blast case. Amid the alleged attack by the crowd, the NIA team arrested two key conspirators in a 2022 blast case, an official told PTI on Saturday.

During the incident, an NIA officer was injured and a vehicle of the NIA team was damaged, a spokesperson of the federal investigating agency said.

Hours after the NIA team was attacked in Bhupatinagar, the district police filed an FIR against them under charges of molestation, news agency ANI reported.

The attack on the NIA team evoked memories of January 5 when a team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) was attacked by a mob in North 24 Parganas district's Sandeshkhali during a search at the house of TMC leader Shajahan Sheikh in connection with alleged irregularities in the public distribution system. 

Sheikh and his associates were accused of sexual harassments and land grabbing in Sandeshkhali.

Reacting to the incident, PM Modi mentioned that the situation in West Bengal is such that "the court has to intervene" in various matters. Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged on Sunday the central investigating agencies were asking TMC leaders to either join the BJP or face action.

"Agencies such as the NIA, ED and CBI are being used to harass TMC leaders. They are carrying out raids without prior information, and barging into houses. What the women would do if someone entered their house when everyone was asleep in the dead of night?" Banerjee was quoted by PTI as saying.