The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Saturday moved the Supreme Court in connection with the I-PAC raids case against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
While filing an Article 32 petition before the top court, the probe agency detailed the entire sequence of events and stated that its right to conduct a fair investigation was curtailed due to interference by the state machinery.
In its petition, the probe agency has sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter.
On the other hand, the West Bengal government has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court seeking that no order should be passed without hearing it in connection with the raid case.
A caveat is filed by a litigant in the High Courts and the Supreme Court to ensure that no adverse order is passed against it without it being heard.
The ED’s move came after failing to get urgent relief from the Calcutta High Court where it sought a CBI investigation into the role of Banerjee, senior police officials and others for allegedly obstructing its raids in Kolkata against political consultancy firm I-PAC and its director on Thursday.
Proceedings in the High Court were adjourned after chaos broke out in the courtroom. The disruption forced the judge to leave the bench, leading to the hearing being halted and deferred.
The ED has alleged that the Chief Minister took away incriminating documents from the agency’s custody during the raid at Jain’s home. Banerjee, however, has maintained that the documents and data related to her political party and accused the agency of targeting her and the Trinamool Congress. I-PAC has been associated with the TMC since after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, according to reports.
The ED conducted search operations at 10 premises, including six in West Bengal and four in Delhi, linked to Anup Majee as per the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), including the I-PAC office and Jain’s residence. I-PAC has been associated with the TMC since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The raids at the I-PAC office and Jain’s residence turned into a bitter face-off between the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as Mamata Banerjee rushed to the area and alleged political vendetta. She accused the BJP-led Centre of targeting her party ahead of elections by seizing the TMC’s internal documents, hard disks and sensitive data linked to its election strategy.
The ED had alleged in a press statement on Thursday that Banerjee entered Jain’s residence on Loudon Road in Kolkata during the raids and “took away key evidence" and followed the same action at the I-PAC office.
On Friday afternoon, Mamata Banerjee led a massive protest march in Kolkata, flanked by actors of the Bengali film industry. She accused the ED of acting as a political tool of the BJP to “steal" her party’s internal strategy, asserting that she did nothing wrong in reaching the premises linked to I-PAC during the central agency’s raids.
“I have done no wrong . Why did you come to do chori? You were stealing my data from my office. I-PAC is an authorised office… I called Pratik Jain, he did not take call. Then I felt that they must be taking my party documents. I have all those pen drives, if necessary, I will open all those," she said.
Source: News18