High drama erupted in West Bengal's Kolkata on Thursday when chief minister Mamata Banerjee “rushed” to the residence of Pratik Jain, the head of top political consultancy group I-PAC, amid Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids, during which she claimed officials attempted to “loot” her party Trinamool Congress's (TMC) hard disks as well as internal documents and sensitive data.
Search operations, which ED said were linked to a money laundering case investigation, were also conducted at the office of the I-PAC, (Indian Political Action Committee), which does political consultancy for West Bengal ruling party TMC and also looks after its IT and media cell.
In videos of her visit to Jain's residence and office that surfaced on social media, Mamata Banerjee was visibly charged, dodging media persons to make her way amid noisy scenes.
Mamata Banerjee said the raid at the residence of Jain, whom she termed as the party's IT chief, was "politically motivated and unconstitutional".
{{/usCountry}}Mamata Banerjee said the raid at the residence of Jain, whom she termed as the party's IT chief, was "politically motivated and unconstitutional".
{{/usCountry}}“They have raided the residence of our IT chief. They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which has details about our candidates for the assembly polls. I have brought those back,” PTI news agency quoted Mamata Banerjee as saying.
"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? Under the SIR, 5 lakh names have been deleted. Just because there is an election, they are taking away all my party’s documents,” Banerjee added.
In a dare of sorts, Mamata Banerjee asked, “What will happen if we reciprocate this ED search by raiding BJP party offices in Bengal; we are exercising restraint.”
“If you [BJP] cannot fight with us, then why are you coming to Bengal, Mamata Banerjee asked, challenging the rival party to ”defeat" the TMC “in a democratic way”.
"You are using agencies to loot our papers, our strategy, our voters, our data, our Bengal... By doing all this, the number of seats you were getting will be reduced to zero. I am sorry Mr Prime Minister, please control your home minister...," Banerjee said.
Mamata Banerjee announced that the TMC will organise protests across Bengal this afternoon against what she described was “ED loot” of TMC documents during raids at I-PAC office.
BJP attacks Mamata
Leader of Opposition in West Bengal assembly, BJP's Suvendu Adhikari termed chief minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to I-PAC chief Pratik Jain's house during the ED raid on Thursday as "unconstitutional and interference" in the central agency's probe.
He said that the ED should take steps against the chief minister.
"I feel that the chief minister and the Kolkata police commissioner's visit was unethical, unconstitutional and direct interference in the central agency's investigation," Adhikari told reporters soon after their visit to Jain's residence at Loudon Street in Kolkata, as the ED raid was going on there.
The BJP leader said that Banerjee had gone to the then Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar's official residence during a CBI raid there.
BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said “rattled” Mamata Banerjee “rushed” to defend Jain with “Kolkata Police CP Manoj Verma standing beside her”.
“RATTLED Mamata Banerjee rushes to defend IPAC chief Prateek [Pratik] Jain—with none other than Kolkata Police CP Manoj Verma standing beside her. WHY? Because the illegal money trail that Trinamool Congress tried to camouflage by keeping IPAC in front has now been EXPOSED,” Bhandari said in an X post.
Illegal money cannot be used to fund elections, manipulate voters, or hijack democracy, he said.
What did ED say
ED issued a statement on the searches later and said they were part of an investigation over illegal coal smuggling, adding that the raids were “evidence-based”, “not targeted at any political establishment”. "The search is ongoing at 10 places - six in West Bengal and four in Delhi- the ED said, according to a statement shared by ANI news agency.
“The search covers various premises linked to the generation of cash, hawala transfer, etc., in that case. No party office has been searched. The search is not linked to any elections and is part of a regular crackdown on money laundering,” the ED statement read.
"The search is conducted strictly in accordance with established legal safeguards. Certain persons, including constitutional functionaries, have come to 2 premises (out of 10), intruded illegally by misusing their position and snatched away the documents," it added.