NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate on Thursday accused West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of obstructing an ongoing money-laundering investigation, claiming that search operations were conducted “in a peaceful and professional manner till the arrival of the Bengal CM” along with senior state police officials.In a statement, the ED said it was carrying out searches at 10 premises, six in West Bengal and four in Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in connection with an alleged coal smuggling syndicate led by Anup Majee.Also read: Mamata reaches I-PAC chief’s house, hits out at Amit Shah; asks ‘Is this home minister’s job?’The ED alleged that proceedings were disrupted after Banerjee arrived at the residence of Pratik Jain, the I-PAC chief, accompanied by a large number of police personnel. “Mamata Banerjee entered the residential premises of Prateek Jain and took away key evidence including physical documents and electronic devices,” the agency said. It further claimed that the chief minister’s convoy then moved to I-PAC’s office, from where “Banerjee, her aides, and state police personnel forcibly removed physical documents and electronic evidence”.The agency said the investigation had uncovered links between the coal smuggling network and hawala operators, with proceeds of crime running into tens of crores of rupees. One such hawala operator, the ED claimed, had facilitated transactions to Indrapac Consulting Private Limited (I-PAC), a political consultancy firm associated with the Trinamool Congress.According to the ED, these actions resulted in obstruction of an ongoing investigation. The agency insisted that the searches were evidence-based, not targeted at any political establishment, and unrelated to elections. “No party office has been searched,” it said, adding that the operation was part of a routine crackdown on money laundering and conducted strictly in accordance with legal safeguards.Earlier, Banerjee rejected the allegations and accused the central agency of attempting to seize the TMC’s internal documents and election strategy. Speaking to reporters after visiting Jain’s residence and the I-PAC office in Salt Lake, she said ED officials were confiscating party documents, hard disks, laptops and mobile phones containing sensitive political data. “Is it the duty of the ED to collect political party data?” she asked, describing the searches as politically motivated and unconstitutional.Launching a sharp attack on the BJP leadership, Banerjee accused Union home minister Amit Shah of misusing central agencies to intimidate opposition parties. She alleged that the raid amounted to “political vendetta” and claimed the ED had begun searches early in the morning when no one was present at the office, allowing officials to access and copy election-related data.
