KOLKATA: Hours after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's dramatic arrival during an ED raid at the residence of I-PAC chief and TMC's IT cell head Pratik Jain, the central probe agency on Thursday moved the Calcutta High Court alleging that the CM "obstructed" the process and took away key evidence.
In a petition filed at the HC, ED alleged that the CM misused her constitutional power and entered the residence of I-PAC chief, where officials from the probe agency were conducting the raid.
In a statement, the ED said that proceeding were carried out peacefully and professionally until CM Mamata arrived with a large number of police officers and allegedly took away key evidence including physical documents and electronic devices.
Raising serious allegations against the company, ED said that a hawala operator linked to the coal smuggling had facilitated transactions of tens of crores of rupees to the Indian PAC Consulting Pvt Ltd, the registered company of I-PAC.
"IPAC is also one of the entities linked to Hawala money," the ED alleged.
The agency said the actions of Mamata and the Kolkata Police commissioner resulted in "obstructions" in the ongoing investigation and proceedings being undertaken as per the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
"It is clarified that the search is evidence-based and not targeted at any political establishment. No party office has been searched. The search is not linked to any elections and is part of a regular crackdown on money laundering. It is conducted strictly in accordance with the established legal safeguards," the ED said.
In a similar development, Pratik Jain's family has also approached the HC against the raid. The family also filed a police complaint alleging theft of important documents during the raid.
"Shortly after (the raid), Pratik Jain's wife filed a complaint at Shakespeare Sarani police station alleging theft by the ED. It is alleged in the complaint that essential documents were stolen from their home during the raid," a police officer said.
"We have received a formal allegation of theft against the ED and are investigating the matter. Appropriate action will be taken based on the findings," he added.
Both cases will be heard by the court on Friday.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee has announced a protest rally on Friday to protest against the ED raids.
The probe agency on Thursday morning conducted raids at ten premises of the IPAC in Kolkata and Delhi, as part of a 2020 case registered by the CBI against a coal smuggling syndicate led by Anup Majhi alias 'Lala', who allegedly stole and illegally excavated coal from the Eastern Coalfield leasehold areas in and around Asansol in Bengal's Paschim Bardhaman district.
However, high drama unfolded after CM Mamata rushed to the residence of IPAC chief Prateek Jain in Loudon Street and later to the company's office at Godrej Waterside Building in Sector V, during the raid was going on.
Mamata alleged that the ED officials were attempting to seize TMC’s hard disks, internal documents and sensitive organisational data during the search.
She termed the raids as "politically motivated and unconstitutional."
"They have raided the residence of our IT chief. They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which have details about our candidates for the assembly polls. I have brought those back," Mamata told reporters.