West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of attempting to seize the Trinamool Congress’ internal documents and digital data during searches conducted at several locations linked to political consultancy firm I-PAC in Kolkata and Bidhannagar, in connection with a money laundering case.
The ED carried out raids at multiple locations, including I-PAC’s office on the 11th floor of a Salt Lake building, the Loudon Street residence of I-PAC head Pratik Jain, and the office of a trader in Posta, Burrabazar.
Following the raids, Mamata Banerjee visited Pratik Jain’s residence and alleged that the central agency was trying to collect her party’s confidential information.
“Is it the duty of Home Minister Amit Shah and the ED to take away all my party documents? If I go to the BJP party office, what will be the result? Just because there is an election, they are taking away all my party’s documents,” she said.
Calling the action “most unfortunate,” Banerjee said the ED had raided the house and office of the party’s IT wing and its head. “They are trying to collect all the information. I rang up Pratik, he is in charge of my party,” she said, emerging with a file in her hand.
“I have collected the party file. They are trying to get details of all our party activities and plans, including the candidate list and our internal information. Is this the duty of the ED and Amit Shah?” she asked, displaying a green folder and a hard drive. “What if I raid the BJP party office? What will be the fallout?” she added.
The Chief Minister later reached I-PAC’s Salt Lake office, where Trinamool Congress workers had gathered in protest. Additional central forces and personnel from the Bidhannagar Commissionerate were deployed at the spot. Kolkata police officers were also seen loading files into Mamata Banerjee’s car parked in the basement.
Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate said the searches were conducted peacefully until the arrival of the West Bengal Chief Minister along with state police and officials, who, it claimed, forcibly removed physical documents and electronic evidence from two premises.
The agency said the search was evidence-based and not targeted at any political party, that no party office was searched, and that the action was not linked to any elections but was part of its routine crackdown on money laundering, carried out strictly in accordance with legal procedures.
Reacting to the developments, BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said the ED should take legal action against Mamata Banerjee for interfering in the investigation.
“I-PAC is a corporate organisation and the ED can raid its offices. What the Chief Minister and the Kolkata Police Commissioner have done is unconstitutional. They tried to interfere in a central agency’s investigation. Why should party documents be kept there?” he asked.
Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi criticised the raids, saying, “ED now raids political consultants because it has failed to raid facts, truth or credibility. The I-PAC raid in Kolkata is yet another chapter in the BJP’s playbook of coercion. When democracy is inconvenient, agencies are weaponised.”
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale accused the Modi government of using the Enforcement Directorate as a “lapdog agency” to steal documents related to the party’s potential candidates, election strategy and campaign plans, calling it a new low in “Modi-Shah’s tactics in Bengal,” and warned that the BJP leadership was “very mistaken” if it thought agencies could be used to fight Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, adding that this marked the beginning of the end for them.
The episode has drawn comparisons with the February 3, 2019 incident when CBI teams visited the residence of then Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha Ponzi case, triggering a major confrontation between the Centre and the state government.
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