"Wrongful Restriction": Probe Agency ED Slams Mamata Banerjee Over I-PAC Raids

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday filed a second writ petition before the Supreme Court against the "wrongful restriction" of its officers during raids at the I-PAC office and its director's residence in Kolkata last week. 

The petition was filed by the Assistant Directors at the Enforcement Directorate -- Nishant Kumar, Vikram Ahlawat, and Prashant Chandila -- against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Director General of Police (DGP) Rajeev Kumar, Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma, and Deputy Commissioner Priyobtoto Roy. 

The ED alleged "wrongful restraint" while conducting search operations in Kolkata on December 8, in the alleged coal pilferage scam. 

"The search at the residence of Pratik Jain had commenced at 06.20 AM, and when the search was in progress and the documents had been taken into possession, the CM (chief minister) along with Commissioner of Police - Mr Manoj Kumar Verma - illegally and unauthorisedly barged into the premises, and after placing the concerned officers conducting the search in wrongful restraint, took away all the documents and digital devices, like laptop and mobiles, from the possession of the officers who had taken them for the purpose of seizure and left the premises with a trunk load of files," the probe agency wrote in the petition, a copy of which was accessed by NDTV.

It further said that they also took the laptop of the ED officer and returned it after two hours.

"The taking of the laptop and keeping it in their possession for two hours also amounts to theft," the probe agency said in its 160-page petition.

"During the search proceedings around 12:40 pm, the aforementioned state authorities/police officers took away the documents collected and indexed by the ED officers. Moreover, the backup of the computer system and email was also stopped midway, and the state security officers took away the said computer system. The storage device of the security cameras installed in the premise was also taken in possession by the state security/police officers. The state security/police officers also took away the mobile phones of the employees of M/s Indian PAC Consulting Private Limited present at the premise. As a result of the above events, nothing was seized from the premises and no data backup could be taken by the team of the Directorate of Enforcement," it added. 

The State Police have filed four cases against the ED on the day of the high-voltage face-off during the search operations in Kolkata. The ED has also appealed to the Supreme Court to stay these cases against its officials. 

The ED raided 10 premises -- six in West Bengal and four in Delhi -- as part of a 2020 case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against a coal-smuggling syndicate led by Anup Majhi, alias "Lala", who allegedly stole and illegally excavated coal from the Eastern Coalfield leasehold areas in and around Asansol in West Bengal's Paschim Bardhaman district.

A hawala operator linked to coal smuggling allegedly facilitated transactions of tens of crores of rupees to the Indian PAC Consulting Private Limited, the registered company of political consultancy firm I-PAC, the probe agency has said.

The I-PAC is also one of the entities linked to hawala money, the ED has alleged.