The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday disposed of a petition filed by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in connection with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at the Kolkata office of I-PAC and the residence of its chief Pratik Jain earlier this month.
The TMC had moved the court seeking an order for preservation of personal and political data that may have been seized by the ED during the raids on January 8.
Representing the ED, additional solicitor general SV Raju stated before the court that the agency has not seized anything from these two premises.
Recording the central probe agency's submission, Justice Suvra Ghosh quashed the petition and observed that nothing further remained to be dealt with TMC's plea.
"...nothing was seized from the residence or office IPAC. In view of such submission the matter is disposed off," the court said.
The court also adjourned a petition by the ED before it seeking a CBI probe into the events of January 8, when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had gone to the political consultancy firm's office at Salt Lake and its director's residence on Loudon Street in south Kolkata during the raids.
The high court adjourned the central agency's petition on the ground that the ED has filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court with prayers "which are almost identical with the present application before it."
West Bengal witnessed an unprecedented clash between CM Mamata and ED on January 8, as the TMC supremo arrived with a large group of police officers at the residence of the I-PAC chief when the raids were going on.
Mamata alleged that the central agency was attempting to seize hard disks and internal documents containing TMC's sensitive organisational data. She called the raids "politically motivated and unconstitutional."
Hours later, the ED filed a petition at the Calcutta High Court alleging that the CM "obstructed" the raids and took away key evidence.
The Kolkata police meanwhile has registered multiple FIRs and launched investigation into allegations that the ED officials stole documents from both the premises during the raid.
(With inputs from PTI)