Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate has approached the Calcutta High Court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, senior police officials and others, alleging obstruction during its recent raids in Kolkata on political consultancy firm I-PAC and its director.
In its writ petition, reviewed by PTI, the federal probe agency claimed that its lawful search operations were disrupted and effectively taken over by the state machinery. The ED alleged direct involvement of the highest political executive and an abuse of police power, arguing that the circumstances warranted an independent investigation by the CBI.
The agency urged the high court to direct the CBI to register FIRs and investigate the entire episode, including the alleged role of the chief minister, police officials and all persons acting in concert. It maintained that a CBI probe was essential, citing consistent observations by both the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court that cases involving powerful state functionaries should be transferred to the central agency.
The ED also sought immediate seizure, sealing, forensic preservation and restoration to its lawful custody of all digital devices, electronic records, storage media and documents that it claimed were illegally and forcibly taken away from the search premises. The high court is expected to hear the petition next week.
The searches were conducted on Thursday at the Salt Lake office of I-PAC and at the Kolkata residence of its founder and director Pratik Jain, as part of a money laundering probe linked to the alleged coal smuggling scam. Several other locations in West Bengal and Delhi were also searched.
In a press statement, the ED alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee entered Jain’s Loudon Street residence during the raid and took away key evidence, and that similar actions followed at the I-PAC office. According to the agency, this was done despite categorical requests to not interfere with search proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The ED claimed that with the assistance of police personnel, digital devices and incriminating documents were forcibly taken from authorised officers, forcing the agency to terminate the search for security reasons without making any seizures.
The petition further alleged that around Rs 20 crore in hawala funds, generated from coal pilferage in West Bengal, were routed to I-PAC. The organisation has been providing political consultancy services to the Trinamool Congress and the state government since 2021. The ED claimed that the funds were transferred through hawala channels using a Mumbai-based angadiya firm that had earlier surfaced during the agency’s probe into the Delhi excise policy case.
The agency also linked the transactions to alleged kickbacks of Rs 45 crore generated in the Delhi liquor policy case, which it claims were used by the Aam Aadmi Party for its 2022 Goa assembly election campaign. According to the ED, Pratik Jain was involved in handling I-PAC’s operations in Goa during that period.
Stating that its officials were prevented from performing their lawful duties, the ED has also sought interim protection from the high court, including restraining orders against any access, deletion, cloning or tampering of the seized digital devices. It further requested protection against multiple FIRs lodged by local police against ED officials in connection with the raids.
