West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday dramatically arrived at the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain, where the Enforcement Directorate was conducting searches, accusing the central agency of attempting to confiscate sensitive internal documents and digital data belonging to the Trinamool Congress.
Banerjee termed the searches at Jain’s residence, whom she described as the “in-charge of my IT cell,” as politically motivated and unconstitutional. She reached the house around noon, shortly after Manoj Verma arrived at the spot, and remained there for about 20–25 minutes before emerging with a green folder in hand.
“ED raided my IT sector office and searched the residence of the person heading it. They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks containing details of our Assembly election candidates. I have brought those back,” Banerjee told reporters.
The chief minister alleged that ED officials attempted to seize hard disks, mobile phones, laptops, candidate lists and internal strategy documents of the ruling party. “Is it the duty of the ED to collect political party data?” she asked, asserting that such actions amounted to misuse of constitutional agencies.
The searches were also carried out at the office of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), the political consultancy firm headed by Jain, which besides offering strategic consultancy to the TMC also handles the party’s IT and media operations.
Launching a sharp attack on Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Banerjee described the raids as an act of political vendetta. “This is not law enforcement, this is political vendetta. Constitutional agencies are being used to intimidate opposition parties,” she alleged.
Pointing to the folder she carried out of the residence, Banerjee claimed ED officials were leaving with party documents and had even attempted to take away a laptop. She further alleged selective targeting by central agencies, claiming that over 15 lakh names from West Bengal had been deleted from electoral rolls without adequate explanation.
Banerjee later visited I-PAC’s Sector V office in Salt Lake, where Rajeev Kumar was also present. The episode evoked memories of the 2019 confrontation at Loudon Street, when Banerjee had rushed to the residence of then police commissioner Rajeev Kumar during a CBI search and later staged a dharna in central Kolkata.
Reacting to the developments, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari accused the chief minister of repeatedly interfering in the functioning of constitutional agencies. He questioned why TMC’s internal documents were allegedly in the possession of a private consultancy firm and termed the CM’s visit “unethical and unconstitutional.”
The Enforcement Directorate did not issue any official statement on the searches till the filing of this report, and the precise nature of the case under investigation remained unclear.
