Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday made a dramatic appearance at the residence of Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) chief Pratik Jain amid Enforcement Directorate searches, accusing the central agency of attempting to seize sensitive Trinamool Congress election-related material.
Banerjee alleged that the raids at Jain’s residence and offices were politically motivated and unconstitutional. She claimed the agency was confiscating internal party documents, hard disks and digital data linked to the TMC’s poll strategy ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.
The Chief Minister, who is also the TMC supremo, reached Jain’s residence around noon, shortly after Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma arrived there. Banerjee stayed at the location for nearly 25 minutes before emerging with a green folder, which she said contained party documents taken back from the premises.
“They raided the residence and offices of the in-charge of our IT cell. They were taking away our party’s documents, hard disks and candidate details for the assembly polls. I have brought those back,” Banerjee told reporters.
She accused ED officials of seizing laptops, mobile phones, hard disks, internal strategy papers and candidate lists of the ruling party, questioning the agency’s mandate. “Is it the responsibility of the ED to collect political party data?” she asked.
I-PAC, which provides political consultancy services to the TMC, also manages the party’s IT and media operations. Banerjee alleged that the searches amounted to political vendetta and launched a sharp attack on the BJP leadership, accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of misusing central agencies to intimidate opposition parties.
“This is not law enforcement. Is this how the Home Minister functions? The Prime Minister must control his Home Minister,” she said.
Simultaneous searches were carried out at I-PAC’s office in Sector V, Salt Lake, where Banerjee later went in person. She claimed the raids began around 6 am when no staff members were present and alleged that sensitive data had been transferred into the agency’s systems.
“They have taken our election strategy, SIR data and other crucial details. If elections are approaching and we are forced to redraw plans, who will take responsibility?” the Chief Minister asked.
Senior state police officials, including Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar, were present at the Sector V office, while the area was secured by central forces. Banerjee entered the building through the basement and reached the office floor without interacting with security personnel.
Accusing the BJP of undermining democratic processes, Banerjee also alleged large-scale deletion of voters from electoral rolls in West Bengal. She claimed over 15 lakh names had been removed under the Special Intensive Revision process.
Asserting that the TMC is a registered party that pays income tax, Banerjee said the Centre could not “bulldoze” the party using “money and muscle power”. She urged party workers to protest across the state against the ED action and said she would remain at the I-PAC office until Jain resumed work.
The incident evoked memories of a similar confrontation in 2019, when Banerjee rushed to the same Loudon Street address during a CBI search at the residence of then Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar.
Reacting to the developments, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari accused the Chief Minister of interfering with a central agency’s investigation. He questioned why the TMC’s internal documents were allegedly kept with a private consultancy firm and termed Banerjee’s intervention unethical and unconstitutional.
The Enforcement Directorate did not issue any official statement on the searches till the filing of this report, and the nature of the case under investigation remained unclear.
