ED–TMC row at Amit Shah’s office; Mahua Moitra detained Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made a dramatic visit to the I-PAC head’s residence and political consultancy office during an ED raid.
Eight AITC MPs staged a dharna outside Amit Shah’s office in Delhi on Friday morning to protest the ED raids at the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) office in Kolkata a day earlier; police later detained them. The MPs held placards, raised slogans, and accused the Centre of misusing central agencies to target opposition parties ahead of elections.
Mahua Moitra, Derek O’Brien, Satabdi Roy, Bapi Haldar, Saket Gokhale, Pratima Mondal, Kirti Azad and Dr Sharmila Sarkar led the protest. Visuals showed the MPs holding placards reading “Bengal rejects Modi-Shah’s dirty politics,” as the Trinamool Congress accused the Centre of pursuing a political vendetta against the party in West Bengal.
I-PAC provides political consultancy to the TMC and manages its IT and media operations.
The standoff began after the ED conducted raids on Thursday at the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain and the group’s office in Kolkata. During the searches, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rushed to the locations, alleging that the central agency was “looting” sensitive TMC documents.
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Videos of a visibly agitated Mamata Banerjee evading the media and holding documents she claimed to have retrieved quickly spread on social media, while the ED later said the searches remained peaceful until the chief minister arrived with a large contingent of police personnel.
ED links raids to coal smuggling proceeds
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday searched six locations in West Bengal and four in Delhi in connection with a 2020 CBI case against alleged coal smuggling kingpin Anup Majee, also known as Lala, and others. Acting on the CBI’s FIR, the ED later registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED said its investigation found that a coal smuggling syndicate allegedly led by Anup Majee stole and illegally mined coal from leasehold areas of Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) in West Bengal and sold it to factories in districts including Bankura, Bardhaman and Purulia.
An ED official alleged that a large share of the coal was sold to the Shakambhari Group of companie.
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