"No Obligation To Inform State Cops Of Raid": Central Agency In I-PAC Case

The Enforcement Directorate has no statutory obligation to inform state police before a search in connection with a probe, the central agency has told the Supreme Court in connection with its petition accusing the West Bengal government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of interfering in its action against political consultancy firm, Indian Political Action Committee, better known as I-PAC.

NDTV has accessed details from the 65-page rejoinder in which the Enforcement Directorate has dismissed claims by the Bengal police.

At the centre of the court battle is the January 8 faceoff between the Bengal government and the central agency during a search at the Kolkata home of I-PAC's Pratik Jain. While the agency claims the search was linked to an illegal coal mining case, the ruling Trinamool Congress in Bengal has alleged that the raid was to seize documents linked to its campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls. I-PAC works closely with the Mamata Banerjee-led party for poll campaigns.

The Enforcement Directorate has now told the court that Banerjee and Bengal police violated its officers fundamental rights during the search. "Every official enjoys the same fundamental rights as an individual and this includes the right to move freely and the right to personal liberty to the extent permissible under law. When an official enters a premise under the authority of law, he is, as an individual, exercising his right to personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. Acts of intimidation, use of force, wrongful confinement of the officer and abuse of state machinery to interdict the official from freely going to all places which are legally permissible and taking all legally permissible actions, violates the fundamental right of such an official," it has said.

The agency has trashed the state government's contention that its cops were investigating armed persons impersonating officials of central agencies. This claim, the agency has said, is "wholly false and unsustainable" because its officials displayed their ID cards and search authorisation to the police officers.

Referring to Banerjee, the agency said the Chief Minister of Bengal entered the premises during the search and took possession of documents and digital devices.

"Ms Mamata Banerjee has stated that she politely requested the ED officers that she be allowed to retrieve the devices and physical files, and that ED officers did not object to the same. Nothing can be farther than the truth. Since the material at the premises was forcibly taken away by Ms Mamata Banerjee with the aid of her police officers, the ED had no option but to wind up the search so as to avoid physical confrontation between security agencies," the agency has told the Supreme Court.

"The search in the present case was not on Indian Political Action Committee. The search warrant was in the name of Indian-PAC Consulting Private Limited which has received proceeds of crime in the coal smuggling case being investigated by the ED," the agency said.

The Enforcement Directorate said it has gathered evidence that shows how proceeds of crime from illegal coal mining were channelled into I-PAC's framework. "Evidences were gathered which disclosed that Rs 20 crores of proceeds of crime arising from illegal coal mining were used through inter-state hawala networks, layered through a chain of facilitators, converted into cash at Goa and channelled into IPAC's operational framework by being handed over to persons executing its work. It was under these circumstances that the search was conducted," it said.

The Supreme Court has earlier said that the West Bengal Chief Minister's alleged obstruction in the central agency's probe is "very serious" and has agreed to examine if a state's law-enforcing agencies can interfere with any central agency's probe into any serious offence.

The Trinamool Congress has denied the Enforcement Directorate's allegations of obstruction. It has said that the agency's action was aimed at accessing its election strategy material months ahead of the polls. The Trinamool has in the past accused the BJP-led central government of using probe agencies to target political rivals.