Mamata Accuses Centre of Using Money & Muscle Power Amid ED Raids at I-PAC Office, Agency Defends Search Calling it 'Evidence-Based'

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has accused the Centre, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of using "money power and muscle power" following raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the office of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) in Kolkata's Salt Lake on Thursday.

According to reports, the raid is part of the ED's searches at 15 locations across India regarding a fake government job scam involving an organized gang.

Amid the ongoing raid at the residence of I-PAC co-founder Pratik Jain, Banerjee arrived at the scene, alleging that the central agency was attempting to seize the TMC’s internal documents, hard disks, and sensitive data linked to its election strategy.

Lashing out at the Centre and the ED while addressing reporters, she asked, "Why did you raid our party's IT sector and take all our papers? Why did you delete 94 lakh names from the voters' list using an app that is not credible? Whatever the Election Commission is doing is according to the actions of the BJP. More than 72 people have died, some by suicide, due to the SIR (Special Intensive Revision). Who is responsible for this?"

She continued, "You have taken all the data from our party's IT office: our party policy, candidate lists, booth president lists, and future strategy. I-PAC is not operating privately; they are authorized by the AITC. They work in our name according to an agreement. Is collecting data from an IT sector at any time not a crime? Is it not the murder of democracy? We will wait here until I-PAC chief Pratik Jain arrives and settles this."

The Chief Minister further accused the BJP of "killing democracy" through the execution of the SIR and the deletion of genuine voters.

“In the name of SIR, they have deleted more than 1.5 crore names and even issued a notice to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen," she claimed.

"Even a murderer is allowed to defend himself, but genuine voters, mostly women who married recently and whose surnames or addresses have changed, their names have been deleted. TMC is a registered political party and pays income tax; the Centre cannot bulldoze us," she said.

Banerjee dared the BJP to fight her "politically and democratically" in the upcoming Assembly elections.

"I am sorry, Mr. Prime Minister, please control your Home Minister. If you cannot fight us, why are you coming to Bengal? Defeat us in a democratic way. You are using agencies to loot our papers, our strategy, and our data," she said.

She also warned that "disturbing Bengal means disturbing India," calling the state the "key point" of the country.

Before arriving at the I-PAC office, she referred to Union Home Minister Amit Shah as "nasty" and "naughty," accusing him of ordering the raids to hijack TMC documents.

Banerjee announced that her party would organize protests across West Bengal against the ED raids. She added that while she could order raids on BJP offices in the state in a retaliatory move, her party is "exercising restraint."

'Search is Evidence-Based': ED

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) defended the raids, calling them "evidence-based" and asserting that they are not targeted at any political party.

In a statement following Banerjee's remarks, the ED said, "The search is evidence-based and is not targeted at any political establishment. The search is ongoing at 10 places (6 in West Bengal and 4 in Delhi). The case relates to illegal coal smuggling. The search covers various premises linked to the generation of cash, hawala transfer, etc., in that case. No party office has been searched. The search is not linked to any elections and is part of a regular crackdown on money laundering."

The agency further added, "The search is conducted strictly in accordance with established legal safeguards. Certain persons, including constitutional functionaries, have come to 2 premises (out of 10), intruded illegally by misusing their position and snatched away the documents."