Several Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs were detained by Delhi Police on Friday while protesting outside Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s office against the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raid on the Kolkata offices of political consultancy firm I-PAC. The protest comes amid heightened tensions over Mamata Banerjee’s dramatic intervention during the raids on Thursday.
TMC MPs including Derek O’Brien, Mahua Moitra, Satabdi Roy, and Kirti Azad raised slogans alleging misuse of central agencies by the BJP-led government to intimidate opposition parties ahead of elections. Videos from the site showed police personnel lifting MPs and escorting them into vans. Derek O’Brien, as he was dragged, said, “You are seeing what is happening to the MPs here,” while Mahua Moitra added, “We will defeat the BJP. The country is seeing how the Delhi Police is treating an elected MP.”
Satabdi Roy said the central government deploys investigative agencies during elections to influence results. “They send teams of ED, CBI during the elections just to win, but they won’t win the election,” she said. Kirti Azad described the raids as “an attempt to win elections in an undemocratic manner,” asserting that “the BJP will not win the elections this way.”
The confrontation escalated after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee allegedly interfered during the ED raids at I-PAC offices and the residence of its director, Pratik Jain, in connection with a coal smuggling case. Banerjee claimed the central agency had seized sensitive TMC-related materials, including hard disks, candidate lists, and strategic documents.
“Is it the duty of the ED, Amit Shah, to collect the party's hard disk, candidate list? The nasty, naughty Home Minister who cannot protect the country is taking away all my party documents,” Banerjee said, challenging Shah to “come to West Bengal and fight democratically.”
Banerjee maintained that I-PAC was not a private organisation but an authorised team working for the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), and alleged the ED had confiscated sensitive documents related to electoral roll revision and party strategy.
The ED, countering Mamata’s allegations, said she entered Jain’s residence during the search and removed “key evidence,” including physical documents and electronic devices. Officials added that her convoy proceeded to I-PAC’s office, where “Ms Banerjee, her aides, and the state police personnel forcibly removed physical documents and electronic evidence.”
The agency clarified that the searches were evidence-based, not targeted at any political establishment, and not linked to elections. The raids are part of a regular money laundering crackdown under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), covering persons and entities connected to a coal smuggling syndicate led by Anup Majhi, and associated hawala operators and handlers.
I-PAC, founded by poll strategist Prashant Kishore, has worked with the TMC since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, managing the party’s IT, media, and election strategy. The company was instrumental in TMC’s return to power in the 2021 Assembly elections. On Thursday, raids were conducted at ten premises across Kolkata and Delhi, including Jain’s residence on Loudon Street and I-PAC’s Sector V office, along with four other locations in Delhi.
During the raids, senior IPS officers, including West Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar and Bidhannagar Police Commissioner, were present, and CRPF personnel secured the I-PAC premises. The situation intensified when Mamata arrived at the sites, accusing the ED of seizing TMC’s organisational data.
Opposition leaders in the state, including Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, CPM Bengal secretary Mohammad Salim, and Congress state chief Shubhankar Sarkar, questioned the legality and propriety of Mamata’s intervention. Meanwhile, the TMC MPs’ protest in Delhi escalates the political standoff, highlighting the high-stakes tension ahead of the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
The ED has also approached the Calcutta High Court alleging obstruction by Mamata Banerjee, while Pratik Jain’s family has filed a police complaint over the alleged removal of documents during the raid. Both cases are scheduled for hearing on Friday.
(With inputs from ANI)
