Kolkata IPAC office raid: ED moves Calcutta High Court against Mamata citing 'hindrance' to probe

Mamata Banerjee claimed that the raid was politically motivated and engineered by the BJP

• ED raided I-PAC chief's house; Mamata Banerjee took documents, laptop, and phone
• ED alleges obstruction; Calcutta High Court may hear the case on Friday
• Banerjee calls raid politically motivated, accuses misuse of central agencies

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After West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out with a laptop, phone and multiple documents from the house of Prateek Jain, the chief of election consultant IPAC during a raid by the Enforcement Directorate, the probe agency moved the Calcutta High Court.

According to reports, the court may hear the case on Friday. The probe agency filed a case citing obstruction and hindrance to the investigation during the raids.

The ED raided the office of the I-PAC, which has been working with the Trinamool Congress and the Bengal government after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It was also instrumental in the party returning to power in the 2021 Assembly polls with a thumping majority and also the good showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Banerjee on Thursday dramatically turned up at the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain.  The ED has been conducting searches, alleging that the central agency was attempting to seize the TMC’s internal documents, hard disks and sensitive digital data.

She said the raid at the residence of Jain, "the in-charge of my IT cell", was politically motivated and unconstitutional.

Banerjee reached Jain’s house around noon, minutes after Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma arrived there, and stayed for about 20-25 minutes before emerging with a green folder in her hand.

“ED raided my IT sector (cell) office, and searched the residence of the in-charge of my IT sector (cell). They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which has details about our party candidates for assembly polls. I have brought those back,” Banerjee told reporters.

She accused the ED of trying to take away hard disks, mobile phones, candidate lists and internal strategy documents of the ruling party. “Is it the duty of the ED to collect political party data?” the CM asked.

Apart from political consultancy for the TMC, I-PAC also looks after the IT and media cell of the party.

Launching a blistering attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Banerjee described the searches as “political vendetta”, and said constitutional agencies were being misused to intimidate opposition parties. “This is not law enforcement, this is political vendetta. The home minister is behaving like the nastiest home minister, not someone who protects the country,” she alleged.

Search operations have also been underway since morning at the office of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), the consultancy firm headed by Jain.

Pointing to the file she carried while exiting the house, Banerjee claimed ED officials were walking away with documents and had even attempted to take a laptop.

She also alleged that central agencies were selectively collecting political information, while names of over 15 lakh people from West Bengal had been deleted from electoral rolls without adequate explanation.

Banerjee later arrived at I-PAC’s Sector-V office in Salt Lake, where DGP Rajeev Kumar is also present. The episode is reminiscent of a 2019 standoff at Loudon Street, when the CBI searched the bungalow of then police commissioner Rajeev Kumar and Banerjee had rushed to the spot, and later staged a dharna in central Kolkata.