Kolkata, Jan 8 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday dramatically turned up at the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain, where 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.
Reacting to the development, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari accused the chief minister of repeatedly interfering in the functioning of constitutional agencies and obstructing investigations.
He said action should be considered against Banerjee and questioned why TMC’s documents were allegedly with a private consultancy firm.
“I feel that the CM and the Kolkata police commissioner’s visit was unethical, unconstitutional and direct interference in the central agency’s investigation,” Adhikari told reporters.
The ED did not issue any official statement on the searches till the filing of this report, and the exact nature of the case being probed remained unclear. PTI PNT AMR PNT RBT
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.