Police revolver among large cache of arms seized from Sandeshkhali, claims CBI

A Colt official police revolver was among a large cache of firearms seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from a house at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Paragans, the CBI claimed in a statement issued on Friday evening.

The recovery was made from the residence of a relative and close aide of suspended Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan. The owner of the house is also a Trinamool Congress panchayat member.

Besides the Colt revolver, the other firearms and ammunition seized from the house include three foreign-make revolvers, one Indian revolver, one foreign-make pistol, one country-made pistol, 120 9 MM bullets, 50 .45 calibre cartridges, 120 9 MM calibre cartridges, 50 .380 cartridges, and eight .32 cartridges.

“Besides, many incriminating documents related to Shahjahan have also been recovered from the house. Some items suspected to be crude bombs have also been recovered, which are being disposed of by teams from the NSG,” the CBI statement said.

The search operation is continuing.

Meanwhile, a war of words has broken out between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress over the search operations at Sandeshkhali on Friday.

Trinamool state General Secretary Kunal Ghosh claimed that the National Security Guard (NSG) was deliberately called in on Friday to influence the voters on the polling day as well as to keep the Sandeshkhali issue alive.

“This entire episode was pre-planned,” Ghosh alleged.

On the other hand, BJP’s IT cell chief and central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of making attempts to protect 'terrorists'.

“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 is the state seeing a huge stockpile of illegal weapons. It is dangerous,” Malviya tweeted.

He has also pointed out that while the NSG has been called in the case, the state government has approached the Supreme Court to preclude the CBI from investigating the matter.

“The arms haul is nothing but an act of terror, waging a war against the nation. But the question is why is Mamata Banerjee trying to protect terrorists who have stocked firearms in such large quantities,” Malviya asked.