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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has approached the Calcutta High Court, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged role of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, senior police officials and others for purportedly obstructing its searches in Kolkata linked to political consultancy firm I-PAC.
According to the writ petition reviewed by PTI, the ED has also sought “immediate seizure, sealing, forensic preservation, and restoration to lawful custody of the ED” of all digital devices, electronic records, storage media and documents that it claims were “illegally and forcibly” taken from the search premises. The high court is expected to hear the petition on Friday.
The searches were carried out on Thursday at I-PAC’s Salt Lake office and at the residence of its founder and director Pratik Jain, as part of an alleged coal scam-linked money laundering investigation. Other locations in West Bengal and Delhi were also searched.
In a press statement and in the petition, the ED alleged that Banerjee entered Jain’s Loudon Road residence during the raids and “took away key evidence”, repeating the action at the I-PAC office. The agency claimed that around Rs 20 crore of hawala funds generated from alleged coal pilferage in the state had been routed to I-PAC, which has been providing political consultancy to the Trinamool Congress and the state government since 2021.
“Concrete material found during investigation revealed that at least Rs 20 crore worth of proceeds of crime was transferred to IPAC through hawala channels,” the petition said, adding that ED officials were obstructed from performing their lawful duties and that ‘panch’ witnesses were “effectively hijacked”. The agency has also sought interim orders restraining any access, deletion, cloning or tampering of the seized digital devices.
Amid the legal escalation, Banerjee on Friday lashed out at the Centre after TMC MPs Mahua Moitra and Derek O’Brien, among others, were detained outside Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s office while protesting the ED action.
“I strongly condemn the shameful and unacceptable treatment meted out to our Members of Parliament… This is a democracy, not the Bharatiya Janata Party’s private property,” Banerjee wrote on X, calling the episode “arrogance in uniform” and alleging double standards in handling protests.
Leading a protest march in Kolkata, the chief minister said citizens are “by right” and not by the “mercy of the chair”, underscoring that dignity, dissent and democratic morality cannot be dictated by those in power.
