Amid apprehensions that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) may move the Supreme Court against alleged interference by the West Bengal government in its search operations, the Mamata Banerjee-led state government has filed a petition before the Supreme Court, demanding that no order be passed without hearing it.
The warning comes in the backdrop of the ED’s search raids on Thursday at the headquarters of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), a political consultancy firm linked to the All India Trinamool Congress, and the Kolkata residence of its director Prateek Jain.
The ED is likely to appeal in the Supreme Court after the Calcutta High Court adjourned the hearing on its urgent plea.
In that petition, the central agency accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of obstructing ED officials and preventing them from performing their public duties in “gross disregard of law” during the search operation allegedly conducted in Kolkata on January 8.
The agency also alleged that the situation worsened after the Chief Minister entered Prateek Jain’s residential complex during the ED searches and removed material documents and electronic devices, among other things, described by the agency as “crucial evidence”.
Furthermore, the West Bengal government has filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court alleging that the ED has seized all the data and digital records from the office of I-PAC.
In its plea, the Mamata Banerjee-led government has sought direction to the ED to return all the seized material, including private, sensitive and confidential data, as well as information and documents taken in both physical and electronic forms.
The state government claimed that the data allegedly seized illegally belonged to the Trinamool Congress and related to its party operations.
On Thursday, a bench of Justice Suvra Ghosh adjourned the hearing of the case due to ruckus and disorder in the court room, which was making the hearing difficult. The High Court has now fixed the hearing of the case on January 14.
Earlier on January 8, the controversy erupted when the ED allegedly conducted searches at the premises of I-PAC and the Kolkata residence of its director in connection with its investigation into a money laundering case linked to the multi-crore coal theft scam.
