The Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) searches on Thursday at the offices of a political strategy firm in Kolkata turned into a pitched political battle with West Bengal’s chief minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee claiming it was an effort by the agency to glean intelligence on her party’s election strategy and candidates, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition in the state, countering that Banerjee was shielding the corrupt and interfering in the lawful functioning of a federal agency. The matter has now reached the Calcutta high court which will hear it on Friday, Jan 8.
ED said its searches were linked to an investigation of an illegal coal mining racket in the state that found illegal transfers to I-PAC, the political consultancy advising the TMC. Bengal is scheduled to go to polls in April or May. The federal agency carried out searches at the office of I-PAC and the residence of its director Pratik Jain. But even as the searches were on, Banerjee stormed into Jain’s residence, and took away documents and a laptop, accusing ED of seizing her party’s internal documents and sensitive data relating to the 2026 assembly polls, including the candidate list. Countering this in a statement, the agency accused the TMC?chief of interfering in the ED’s action and taking away evidence.
In parallel developments, additional solicitor general Dhiraj Trivedi, for ED, brought the matter to the notice of the Calcutta high court, seeking its intervention while Jain’s family approached the same bench, accusing ED of exceeding its jurisdiction.
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