NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Friday accused the Centre of misusing central agencies after she was detained by Delhi police while protesting outside union home minister Amit Shah’s office against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on political consultancy firm I-PAC in Kolkata.Reacting after her detention, Moitra alleged that the ED was being used to target political opponents and steal sensitive electoral information.
“You have seen how the government is using the ED as their agency to steal information, election strategy of their political opponents. ED was sent to the office of our political consultant for dacoity of information. They are talking about some 7–8 years old coal scam; you didn’t get time to gather information in all these years. Mamata Banerjee showed how to fight against them. People of Bengal will teach them a lesson,” she said.Earlier, as she and other TMC MPs including Derek O’ Brien were taken away by police, Moitra posted on X, claiming force was used during the detention. “Amit Shah’s cops dragging us in police vans to police station. Bring it on BJP Bengalis — you’ll be eaten by the Bengal Tigress, Mamata Banerjee,” she wrote.Speaking to reporters, Moitra also objected to the detention of protesters, stating, “Even here, we are protesting peacefully, yet you can see how we are being picked up — every time, you see it for yourself, how they drag us away.”TMC MP Kirti Azad in a post on X wrote, “Detained at Parliament Street Police Station. No FIR has been registered so far. We have not been told the reason for the same. No senior officer is available. If this is what is happening to elected members of Parliament, we can understand what must be the plight of a common man.” Meanwhile, BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad defended the ED raids, drawing parallels with the fodder scam investigation involving RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.Addressing a press conference Prasad said, “This raid is similar to the one during the fodder scam case against Lalu Prasad. He was later arrested, but he never stormed the CBI office as Mamata Banerjee did. What link does Mamata have with that firm?”The protest followed ED searches at multiple locations linked to I-PAC in Kolkata on Thursday, including the residence of its chief, Pratik Jain. I-PAC provides political consultancy services to the TMC and manages parts of the party’s IT and media operations.Meanwhile, the TMC on Friday moved the Calcutta High Court seeking restraint on the “misuse and dissemination” of documents and data seized during the ED searches. The party has termed the raids politically motivated and aimed at intimidating it ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections. CM Banerjee further alleged that party documents, hard disks and sensitive data were being seized under the guise of an investigation.Questioning the role of the ED and Amit Shah, Banerjee said, “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 and is taking away all my party documents. What will be the result if I raid the BJP party office?”She also linked the agency action to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in West Bengal, alleging that voter names were being deleted ahead of the polls.“On one side, they are deleting the names of all the voters by carrying out the SIR in West Bengal…Because of the elections, they are collecting all the information about my party,” she said. Banerjee further dared the BJP to fight the TMC politically if it wanted to win Bengal.
