{"id":12666,"date":"2026-04-17T19:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=12666"},"modified":"2026-04-17T19:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T19:58:07","slug":"130342672-cms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/?p=12666","title":{"rendered":"I-T raids on Mamata\u2019s proposer & TMC pick raise West Bengal poll heat | India News – The Times of India"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Kolkata: Income tax officials on Friday raided Mamata Banerjee<\/a>\u2019s poll nomination proposer, Miraj Shah, and TMC candidate Debashis Kumar, prompting the Bengal CM to call BJP \u201cspineless cowards\u201d.Shah was Banerjee\u2019s proposer in Kolkata\u2019s Bhowanipore. Kumar is seeking re-election from Rashbehari, a high-profile constituency nearby.The I-T raids mark a significant escalation of the face-off between the Centre and the Banerjee-led TMC govt less than a week before the state votes in the first phase on April 23. \u201cBJP will have to answer for this. You cannot play a dirty game. Ballots, not bullets, win polls,\u201d Banerjee said, calling the raids a \u201cshameless and brazen act\u201d by those who \u201ccannot fight from the front\u201d.The raids on the Elgin Road residence of businessman Shah, also a trustee of one of the state\u2019s biggest private educational institutions, became a talking point. But the bigger showdown unfolded at Kumar\u2019s home.A team of I-T officers reached Kumar\u2019s Manoharpukur Road residence at 5am. According to local residents, central force jawans accompanying the I-T officers jumped over the locked gate to knock on the door. The I-T officials followed and started a search-and-interrogation session that lasted nearly 15 hours.While one I-T team scoured Kumar\u2019s home, another reach-ed his election office a few me-tres away. A third team went to his mother-in-law\u2019s flat in the neighbourhood. A fourth reached a TMC office nearby and a fifth raided the house of Kumar Saha, a close associate.\u201cI don\u2019t know what they found. All I know is I lost a day of campaigning. The outcome of these raids will be known on May 4. This will only help me,\u201d Kumar said after the I-T team left around 8pm.ED had earlier questioned him twice in a land grab and illegal construction case.A lawyer who arrived at the house was denied entry. Kumar had a Friday deadline to submit poll-related expenditure. But his agent, Rakesh Kamath, who came to get docum-ents signed was also stopped. Soon, TMC workers arrived and started protesting. By no-on, locals had joined the them.Sensing the situation was getting tense, Kumar sent out instructions that there should be no trouble.\u201cThe I-T officers have the right to interrogate politicians, not harass them. I won\u2019t leave till Kumar is freed from their clutches,\u201d said Jayanta Manna, his childhood friend. Neighbours also waited for the I-T officers to exit. \u201cThis is simply harassment,\u201d said Supriti Maitra, a model who stays close by.Kolkata: Income tax officials on Friday raided Mamata Banerjee\u2019s poll nomination proposer, Miraj Shah, and TMC candidate Debashis Kumar, prompting the Bengal CM to call BJP \u201cspineless cowards\u201d.Shah was Banerjee\u2019s proposer in Kolkata\u2019s Bhowanipore. Kumar is seeking re-election from Rashbehari, a high-profile constituency nearby.The I-T raids mark a significant escalation of the face-off between the Centre and the Banerjee-led TMC govt less than a week before the state votes in the first phase on April 23. \u201cBJP will have to answer for this. You cannot play a dirty game. Ballots, not bullets, win polls,\u201d Banerjee said, calling the raids a \u201cshameless and brazen act\u201d by those who \u201ccannot fight from the front\u201d.The raids on the Elgin Road residence of businessman Shah, also a trustee of one of the state\u2019s biggest private educational institutions, became a talking point. But the bigger showdown unfolded at Kumar\u2019s home.A team of I-T officers reached Kumar\u2019s Manoharpukur Road residence at 5am. According to local residents, central force jawans accompanying the I-T officers jumped over the locked gate to knock on the door. The I-T officials followed and started a search-and-interrogation session that lasted nearly 15 hours.While one I-T team scoured Kumar\u2019s home, another reach-ed his election office a few me-tres away. A third team went to his mother-in-law\u2019s flat in the neighbourhood. A fourth reached a TMC office nearby and a fifth raided the house of Kumar Saha, a close associate.\u201cI don\u2019t know what they found. All I know is I lost a day of campaigning. The outcome of these raids will be known on May 4. This will only help me,\u201d Kumar said after the I-T team left around 8pm.ED had earlier questioned him twice in a land grab and illegal construction case.A lawyer who arrived at the house was denied entry. Kumar had a Friday deadline to submit poll-related expenditure. But his agent, Rakesh Kamath, who came to get docum-ents signed was also stopped. Soon, TMC workers arrived and started protesting. By no-on, locals had joined the them.Sensing the situation was getting tense, Kumar sent out instructions that there should be no trouble.\u201cThe I-T officers have the right to interrogate politicians, not harass them. I won\u2019t leave till Kumar is freed from their clutches,\u201d said Jayanta Manna, his childhood friend. Neighbours also waited for the I-T officers to exit. \u201cThis is simply harassment,\u201d said Supriti Maitra, a model who stays close by.<\/div>\n\n

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Kolkata: Income tax officials on Friday raided Mamata Banerjee\u2019s poll nomination proposer, Miraj Shah, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[724,723,30551,719,720,721,419,30553,30552,722,22911],"class_list":["post-12666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-breaking-news","tag-google-news","tag-income-tax-raids","tag-india","tag-india-news","tag-india-news-today","tag-mamata-banerjee","tag-political-harassment","tag-tmc-candidate-debashis-kumar","tag-today-news","tag-west-bengal-elections-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/d.sheep-mine.ts.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}