New Delhi, Apr 14 (IANS): Trinamool Congress (TMC) General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday claimed that his chopper was raided by the Income Tax officials and the I-T sleuths also misbehaved with his security men.

The I-T searches reportedly took place when his chopper was in Kolkata’s Behala Flying Club.

According to party officials, the tax officials also got into a verbal altercation with the Trinamool leader’s security staff and threatened to ground the chopper.

Trinamool fumed over the I-T raids at one of its tallest leaders and accused the BJP of deploying government agencies in its bid to target the rival parties.

The party also said that the recent raids are a testament of BJP’s ‘fear and frustration’.

“These actions are testament to the fact that BJP is trembling when it comes to Bengal and across the country, by hook or by crook, they want to wipe out the opposition in a bid to come to power again,” the TMC said in a statement.

Banerjee also took to X and wrote: "Instead of removing the @NIA_India DG and SP, @ECISVEEP and@BJP4India chose to deploy MINIONS FROM IT to search and raid my chopper and security personnel today, resulting in NO FINDINGS. The ZAMINDARS can exert all the might but Bengal's SPIRIT OF RESISTANCE will never waver."

Sanket Gokhale, senior TMC leader and Rajya Sabha MP, slammed the raids and accused the I-T dept of blocking his campaign days ahead of polls, at the behest of PM Modi’s dispensation.

Abhishek Banerjee is the nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and is an incumbent MP from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency.