I-PAC raid row: ED moves Supreme Court, alleges interference by CM Mamata Banerjee

NEW DELHI,  (IANS): The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a petition before the Supreme Court alleging that its simultaneous raid and search operations on Thursday at the office of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and the residence of its co-founder, Pratik Jain, were obstructed by the West Bengal government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Seeking urgent judicial intervention in the matter, the Central anti-money laundering agency has claimed that its officials faced resistance during the search operations and were prevented from carrying out their duties in accordance with the law.

The ED has also claimed that interference by West Bengal authorities compromised the integrity of its investigation. Anticipating the ED’s move, the West Bengal government has filed a caveat before the apex court, requesting that no order be passed without hearing its version.

The move was aimed at ensuring that no interim relief is granted to the Central agency without the state government being heard. The development comes a day after the Calcutta High Court on Friday turned down the ED’s plea for an urgent hearing regarding controversies surrounding the raids.

The ED had approached the Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul seeking an urgent hearing after the matter could not be taken up by the single-judge Bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh earlier in the day due to an excessive crowd inside the courtroom at the time of commencement of the hearing.

The Acting Chief Justice Paul-led Bench stated that the hearing would proceed on the scheduled date, January 14, as fixed by Justice Ghosh.

In its petition filed before the Calcutta High Court, the ED accused the Chief Minister of misusing her constitutional position by allegedly creating hindrances to the official duties of Central agency officials during the raid and search operations carried out at the two premises.

The ED also sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the matter, making the Chief Minister a party to its petition.

The Central anti-money laundering agency further pleaded for an investigation into the role of senior police officials who were allegedly accompanying CM Mamata Banerjee when she reached the two locations while the ED operations were underway and reportedly left the premises after collecting paper files and electronic documents.

There were also two counter-petitions in the matter — one by Pratik Jain and another by the Trinamool Congress.

In its counter-petition, the Trinamool Congress alleged that since I-PAC is acting as the party’s voter-strategy agency, the ED raid was aimed at seizing documents related to its poll strategy for the 2026 Assembly elections and sharing them with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).