West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during a protest rally from Jadavpur to Hazra Crossing against the ED raid on the IPAC office
| Photo Credit:
ANI
The Enforcement Directorate in a plea before the Calcutta High Court has sought a CBI probe into an alleged illegal interference by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during its search operations at the premises of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain in connection with a multi-crore coal scam.
The ED, in its petition, has also sought return of the documents and electronic material Banerjee was said to have taken from the premises of political consultancy firm I-PAC.
The high court on Friday adjourned the hearing on the ED’s plea, citing large scale commotion in the courtroom .A major chaos unfolded inside Justice Suvra Ghosh’ courtroom during the hearing of the petitions filed by ED and two other petitioners, Trinamool Congress and Prateek Jain, as a huge number of lawyers and people entered the courtroom.
Failing to hear the argument, Justice Suvra Ghosh left the courtroom. The court was adjourned and the next date of hearing has been scheduled on January 14.
Judicial intervention
In its petition, ED has urged a judicial intervention over what it described as “hindrance and obstruction” caused by the Chief Minister to its officers executing searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The Enforcement Directorate carried out searches at ten premises, including the office of Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and the residence of Jain in Kolkata, on Thursday to probe into the alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam.
During ongoing raids, Banerjee barged into the home of the I-PAC’s chief, Pratik Jain, and walked out with files and a cellphone even as an ED raid was on there.
Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress supremo, alleged that the raids were “politically motivated to steal party data” relating to the party’s strategy document and candidate list for the upcoming Assembly polls in Bengal.
While the court proceedings were underway, Chief Minister Banerjee began a large protest rally on foot from Kolkata’s Jadavpur to Hazra crossing, 6 km away, on Friday to protest against the raids. Banerjee walked at the front with a big group of party leaders and workers behind her and a large crowd lined the sides of the road to support her.
The Trinamool Congress chief and other leaders of the party accused the BJP of being desperate to win the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections and using all possible methods to achieve that.
Published on January 9, 2026
