Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday said that its raids at the residence and office of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain in Kolkata were conducted peacefully until West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived with “a large number of police officers.”
The ED’s statement came hours after Mamata’s dramatic visit to the sites of the raids, which the central agency said were linked to a money laundering investigation involving coal smuggling proceeds. The raids targeted both the political consultancy group’s office and Jain’s residence.
According to the ED, the raids were part of an ongoing probe into individuals who allegedly generated proceeds from coal smuggling. The agency also alleged that a hawala operator involved in the smuggling facilitated transactions worth tens of crores to I-PAC.
Mamata Banerjee, in videos circulated widely, appeared visibly upset and later accused the ED of politically motivated action. She claimed the agency was targeting the Trinamool Congress’s IT chief and confiscating party documents and hard drives containing election-related data. “I have brought those back,” she said, describing her intervention.
In a pointed remark, Banerjee challenged the BJP to “defeat” the TMC democratically instead of relying on investigative agencies. “You are using agencies to loot our papers, our strategy, our voters, 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,” she said.
The ED countered by asserting that the operations were peaceful until the Chief Minister’s arrival.
The raids were conducted at I-PAC, which handles the TMC’s political consultancy, IT, and media operations, along with Pratik Jain’s residence. Mamata reportedly stayed at Jain’s home for 20–25 minutes, leaving with a green folder in hand.
Reacting to the developments, the BJP criticized Mamata’s intervention. On X (formerly Twitter), the party said, “A sitting Chief Minister rushing to the spot, looking clueless and breathless, to collect party documents and hard disks is not damage control; it indicates a deeper conspiracy.” The post further questioned why a Chief Minister would need to intervene at a private organization’s office if there was “nothing to hide” in West Bengal.