Mamata Banerjee: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has approached the High Court (HC) against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
ED accused Mamata of obstructing the ongoing money laundering investigation. It said the search operations were going peacefully and professionally before Mamata arrived to the scene along with senior police officials. ED raided the residence of Pratik Jain, the chief of I-Pac. It was alleged by ED that Mamata forcibly took away key evidences including electronic devices and physical documents.
What Was Mamata Banerjee Hiding?
ED remarked that the investigation uncovered links between hawala operators and the coal smuggling network running into tens of crores of rupees.
ED claimed that one hawala operator had facilitated a series of transactions to a political consultancy firm associated with the ruling TMC – Indrapac Consulting Private Limited (I-PAC).
It was further claimed by the ED that the searchers were not targeted at any political establishment in the country and were evidence-based in nature, with no relation to the upcoming West Bengal elections.
Mamata replied that the Central Government has been abusing government agencies like always. She added ED officials were confiscating party hard disks, laptops, mobile phones and documents containing sensitive political data. Mamata termed the ED raid as unconstitutional and politically motivated.
Mamata’s actions drew immediate criticism from the Bhartiya Janata Party and the CPI (M) that accused the Bengal CM of destroying evidence. West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said Mamata obstructed government officials and destroyed evidence with a clear attempt to hide the accused persons.
Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of opposition in the West Bengal assembly, demanded courts to step in and legal action against Mamata. Suvendu added this is not the first time that Mamata had interfered in the job of a central investigating agency. Previously, Mamata had interfered at the CBI office at Nizam Palace and during raids at the former Kolkata CP Rajeev Kumar’s residence.
Senior CPI(M) leader Mohammed Salim said the CM should be arrested. Salim accused Mamata of hiding evidence of alleged vote manipulation.
