New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate Thursday raided the office of political consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and the Kolkata house of its head Pratik Jain as part of investigation into alleged hawala fund transfers in a coal smuggling case, ThePrint has learnt.
The raids were part of a larger operation targeting approximately 10 locations in Kolkata and Delhi, sources said.
I-PAC has been providing political consultancy services to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has governed West Bengal since 2011. The firm was earlier led by poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor before Jain took over.
The nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the TMC’s national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, along with his wife were earlier summoned for questioning in the same case.
CM Banerjee rushed to Jain’s Loudon Street residence shortly after reports of the raids emerged, alleging that the agency was attempting to collect information about her party’s activities and plans. West Bengal is set to go to polls this year.
“I rang up Pratik, he is in charge of my party. I have collected the party file. ED is trying to get details of all our party activities and plans,” Banerjee said outside Jain’s residence.
“They are trying to get the candidate list and our internal information. Is it the duty of ED and Amit Shah (Union Home Minister)? See, I got this, the file and the hard drive. What if I raid the BJP party office? What will be the fallout?” she said, displaying a green file she said came from inside Jain’s house.
ED sources denied collecting any data on political parties or candidates. “No such data has been collected or retrieved from the premises under search, and neither is that our objective. The subject’s role has emerged during the investigation, and the search action has been initiated only after the role of Jain emerged in hawala transfers running into tens of crores during the investigation in the ongoing coal smuggling case,” an ED official told ThePrint.
Additionally, an ED spokesperson said the searches were going on peacefully till the CM arrived along with police officers at Jain’s residence.
She, the spokesperson said, “took away key evidence, including physical documents and electronic devices”.
“The CM’s convoy then proceeded to I-PAC’s office premises, from where Ms. Banerjee, her aides, and the state police personnel forcibly removed physical documents and electronic evidence,” the spokesperson said, alleging that this amounted to obstruction in the probe.
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ED’s probe stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case against Anup Majee and several Eastern Coalfield Limited officials on allegations of illegal coal excavation and theft in leasehold areas in West Bengal. This coal was later sold at various factories/plants in Bankura, Bardhaman, Purulia and other districts of the state.
Based on CBI’s FIR, filed in November 2020, ED launched a money laundering investigation and allegedly found that the coal smuggling syndicate illegally excavated approximately 25.51 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of coal worth around Rs 1,114.35 crore.
The agency has alleged that the syndicate led by Majee built an organised gang that carried out large-scale illegal coal mining using heavy mining machinery, earth movers and explosives under the protection and patronage of influential persons in the area.
The syndicates allegedly paid bribes to public servants and other influential persons who patronised the illegal mining business. “The proceeds of crime were also transferred overseas in the bank accounts of individuals having close family ties with persons having political clout,” the agency alleged in previous court filings on the case.
Asked about the alleged link with IPAC, the ED spokesperson said a hawala operator who dealt with proceeds of crime in the coal smuggling case also passed on “tens of crores of rupees” to political consultancy firm.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
did somebody catch the smoke or the fire ? unprecedented for a sitting chief minister to run to the office of a private entity which has got nothing to do with the government !