The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has petitioned the Calcutta High Court to have a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged involvement of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, high-ranking police officials and others in obstructing ED searches in Kolkata. The raids targeted Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) a political consultancy firm and its director in relation to an alleged money laundering case that was related to coal scam.
It is reported that the ED has submitted a writ petition in the High Court demanding a court-guided CBI probe into the incident. The central agency has also in its plea petitioned immediate seizure, sealing, forensic preservation and restoration into its valid possession of all digital devices, electronic records, storage media, and documents that were allegedly illegally and forcibly taken off the search sites in the course of the operation.
It is likely that the Calcutta High Court will hear the case on Friday.
On Thursday, the searches were carried out at I-PAC office at Salt Lake and at the residence of the founder and director of the company, Pratik Gandhi. Concurrent raids were also conducted by the ED in some other places in West Bengal and in Delhi with its ongoing inquiry into the so-called proceeds of crime based on the so-called coal scam.
The ED in a press statement on Thursday stated that when the raid took place in a residence on Loudon Road in Kolkata, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee allegedly entered the residence and took away important evidences. The agency also alleged that the same had occurred in the I-PAC office, where the officials were denied to perform their functions and also important materials were stolen.
The ED has claimed that this is equivalent to gross interception of a legitimate inquiry by a central agency, and a violation of the rule of law.
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