The ED (Enforcement Directorate) on Thursday alleged search proceedings at the residence I-PAC head Pratik Jain in West Bengal’s Kolkata and political consultancy group’s office were peaceful till chief minister Mamata Banerjee arrived with “a large number of police officers”.
ED statement came hours after Mamata Banerjee’s dramatic visit to I-PAC chief Pratik Banerjee’s residence and office on Thursday afternoon amid raids that the central agency said were linked to a money laundering case connected with coal smuggling.
Today’s raids were linked to people who generated proceeds of coal smuggling, PTI news agency quoted ED’s statement on Thursday.
In videos of her visit, Mamata Banerjee appeared furious and charged, sentiments that reflected in her speech later in which she challenged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to “democratically” defeat her party – Trinamool Congress (TMC) – in the upcoming West Bengal assembly elections.
Hawala operator linked to coal smuggling in Bengal facilitated transactions of tens of crores of rupees to I-PAC, the ED alleged.
Search operations, which ED said were linked to a money laundering case investigation, were conducted at the office of the I-PAC, (Indian Political Action Committee), which does political consultancy for West Bengal ruling party TMC and also looks after its IT and media cell, apart from Pratik Jain’s residence.
TMC supremo 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, according to the chain of events mentioned in a PTI report.
Mamata Banerjee said the raid at the residence of Jain, whom she termed as the party’s IT chief, was “politically motivated and unconstitutional”.
“They have raided the residence of our IT chief. They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which has details about our candidates for the assembly polls. I have brought those back,” she was quoted as saying.
In a dare of sorts, Mamata Banerjee asked, “What will happen if we reciprocate this ED search by raiding BJP party offices in Bengal; we are exercising restraint.”
“If you [BJP] cannot fight with us, then why are you coming to Bengal, Mamata Banerjee asked, challenging the rival party to ”defeat” the TMC “in a democratic way”.
“You are using agencies to loot our papers, our strategy, our voters, our data, our Bengal… By doing all this, the number of seats you were getting will be reduced to zero. I am sorry Mr Prime Minister, please control your home minister…,” Banerjee said.
