Mamata storms I-PAC chief’s home Alleges bid to seize TMC’s internal data

 

 

 

WEST Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday dramatically turned up at the residence of Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) chief Pratik Jain amid an ongoing ED raid, alleging that the central agency was attempting to seize the TMC’s internal documents, hard disks and sensitive data linked to its election strategy. She said the raid at the residence and offices of Jain, “the in-charge of my IT cell”, was politically motivated and unconstitutional. Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, arrived at Jain’s residence around noon, minutes after Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma reached the spot, and stayed for 20-25 minutes before emerging with a green folder in her hand.

 

“They have raided the residence and offices of our in-charge of IT cell. They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which have details about our party candidates for the Assembly polls. I have brought those back,” Banerjee said. She accused the ED officials of walking away with 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. Apart from providing political consultancy to the TMC, the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC ) also manages the party’s IT and media operations. Banerjee described the search as an act of “political vendetta”, and accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of misusing constitutional agencies to intimidate Opposition parties.

 

“This is not law enforcement. Is this how the nastiest and naughty home minister functions, who cannot protect the country and is sending agencies to harass before elections?” she said, later adding, “After this, you will be reduced to zero. I am sorry Mr Amit Shah, the Prime Minister must control his Home Minister.” ED searches had also been underway since early morning at I-PAC’s office in Sector V, Salt Lake. Banerjee alleged the raids began around 6 am when no one was present at the office. “They started the search when there was nobody inside. They transferred our data, poll strategies and information into their system. This is a crime,” she alleged after visiting the Sector-V office. “They attempted to take away all the documents from the office.

 

The tables are empty. If the papers need to be recreated, it will take so much time that the elections will be over. Was it fair for them to do this?” she questioned. Banerjee said TMC is a registered political party and pays income tax regularly. “We have elected representatives. If the ED needed anything, they could have taken the details from the Income Tax Department,” she said. The TMC boss wondered why central agencies don’t send notices to BJP leaders. “The BJP is the biggest party of thieves. What will happen if we reciprocate this ED search by raiding BJP party offices in Bengal; we are exercising restraint. But, our restraint should not be mistaken for our weakness,” she said. According to sources, several files were brought out of the office during the search and placed in the Chief Minister’s vehicle while she was still at Jain’s residence.

 

THE Enforcement Directorate (ED) and political consultancy firm I-PAC on Thursday moved the Calcutta High Court over the central agency’s searches at the office and residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain. The ED moved the court alleging interference in its investigation, while I-PAC challenged the legality of the searches. The ED on Thursday conducted searches at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the home of its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata as part of a money laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam, official sources said.

 

The I-PAC’s office in Salt Lake and Jain’s house on Loudon Street are among about 10 premises, including four in Delhi, being raided by the federal probe agency in the presence of central paramilitary teams since 7 am, they said. Jain, the co-founder and a director of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and an IIT-Bombay alumnus, is being covered as there is “specific” evidence against him related to certain hawala transactions and cash deals emanating from the coal “scam” case in West Bengal, the sources said. Jain is also the head of the IT cell of the TMC, the ruling party in West Bengal. The ED case stems from a November 2020 FIR filed by the CBI, which alleged a multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields mines in West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol. Local coal operator Anup Majhi, alias Lala, is the prime suspect in the case. The ED earlier questioned Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, the 38-year-old nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and claimed that he was a beneficiary of the funds obtained from the illegal coal trade. ED sources said the action was taken “purely on the merits of the coal scam case and the proceeds of crime linked to it, and there was no political angle” to it.