NEW DELHI: Several Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, including MPs Mahua Moitra and Derek O’Brien, were detained by Delhi police on Friday while protesting outside Union home minister Amit Shah’s residence and office. The protest was staged against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids conducted at the office of the political consultancy firm I-PAC in Kolkata on Thursday.
TMC MPs gathered with placards reading “Bengal rejects Modi-Shah’s dirty politics”, highlighting their opposition to the ED action, which they termed politically motivated and aimed at intimidating the party ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections.Speaking to the media during the protest, Mahua Moitra said, “Yesterday, entire India, Bengal witnessed how ED was misused by the Home Ministry. The ED was sent to steal our party’s political, strategic information. Mamata Banerjee is a lioness, she protected our party’s properties.”TMC MP Kirti Azad added, “They are acting undemocratically; even the raid was illegal. They loot and accuse us of scams. They took away our strategy and candidate lists. BJP’s internal survey shows they won’t get more than 25 seats. But Mamata Banerjee will secure a massive mandate as CM and go on to become the Prime Minister.”The protest comes ahead of a planned march in Delhi led by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee will lead the march from Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand to Hazra More at 2 pm to protest the ED raids, news agency PTI reported.The raids at I-PAC offices targeted two locations in Kolkata on Thursday. Apart from providing political consultancy to TMC, I-PAC manages the party’s IT and media operations, making the action sensitive for the party’s electoral preparations. Banerjee visited the I-PAC premises during the ongoing search, accusing the central agency of attempting to seize internal documents, hard disks, and digital data linked to the party’s election strategy.The TMC has described the ED action as politically motivated harassment, intensifying the standoff between the ruling party in West Bengal and the Union government ahead of the assembly elections.
ED raids I-PAC-linked locations; Mamata alleges political vendetta
On Thursday, ED conducted searches at multiple locations, including the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain.Reacting sharply to the raids, CM Banerjee accused the Centre of pursuing a political vendetta and misusing central agencies ahead of elections. She 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 Union Home Minister 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.Banerjee visited I-PAC’s Salt Lake office during the searches, asserting that the Trinamool Congress is a registered political party that pays income tax and cannot be “bulldozed using money and muscle power”.The BJP hit back at the chief minister, accusing her of interfering in a central agency probe. Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari termed Banerjee’s visit to Pratik Jain’s residence during the ED raid as “unconstitutional” and alleged it amounted to direct interference in the investigation.Adhikari further said the ED should take action against the chief minister, claiming her presence along with that of the Kolkata police commissioner, was improper while the search was underway.Officials said the ED raids were conducted at 15 locations in connection with a fake government job scam, allegedly run by an organised gang that duped people by promising employment.
