Rajat Sharma’s Blog | Interference in ED raids: Will this benefit Mamata?

Something happened in Bengal which had never happened anywhere in the history of the country. The Chief Minister herself arrived to stop the Enforcement Directorate raid. Mamata Banerjee snatched away the papers, phones and hard disks seized from the ED team and took them with her.

ED on Thursday raided the office of I-PAC and the house of I-PAC director Prateek Jain in the money laundering and hawala case in the coal scam. But as soon as this news spread, Mamata Banerjee first reached Prateek Jain’s house. Then the Chief Minister along with a huge army of Police Commissioner, Deputy Police Commissioner and other police officers entered the I-PAC office, sent the files out from there and Mamata herself sat there for four hours. Mamta alleged that BJP sent ED to I-PAC office to steal the election strategy of Trinamool Congress, BJP has started using agencies in Bengal but now BJP will also have to face the consequences.

After some time, Kolkata Police registered an FIR against the ED officers. Whereas Trinamool Congress filed an application against ED in the High Court. ED also filed an application in the High Court. The question is whether it is right for a Chief Minister to obstruct the work of the investigating agency? Did Mamata Banerjee break the law? Can ED arrest Mamta now? What impact will this incident have on the electoral politics of Bengal?

High-voltage political drama unfolded on Thursday when the ED simultaneously raided 10 places in Delhi and West Bengal in connection with the Bengal coal scam and hawala transaction cases. An ED team reached Prateek Jain’s house in Kolkata. Prateek Jain is the co-founder of political consultancy company I-PAC. He also looks after the work of the IT cell of Trinamool Congress. ED claims that during the investigation of the coal scam, evidence was found linking I-PAC to money laundering and hawala transactions. The office of I-PAC in Salt Lake area of ​​Kolkata was also raided.

First of all, the Deputy Police Commissioner of South Kolkata along with SHO and several policemen reached Prateek Jain’s house. He checked the ID cards of ED officers. The ED team told the police the reason for the raid. After this, Kolkata Police Commissioner and Bidhannagar Police Commissioner arrived with a heavy contingent of police. Then Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar also came. While talks were going on between the police and ED officers, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s convoy reached Prateek Jain’s house. Mamta directly entered Prateek Jain’s house and asked the police officers to take possession of all the files which ED had seized from Prateek Jain’s house.

On the orders of Mamata Banerjee, the police team took many documents including an iPhone and a hard disk of Prateek Jain from the ED officials and kept all the documents in a police car parked outside. Mamata Banerjee herself came out of Prateek Jain’s house carrying the iPhone snatched from ED, a hard disk and a green colored file. Mamta alleged in front of the media that BJP has tried to steal her party’s confidential documents and data related to election strategy through ED. They have taken back some documents but a lot of data has been transferred by ED.

Mamta used words like devil, scoundrel for Home Minister Amit Shah. Said, the devil Home Minister, the scoundrel Home Minister, who cannot protect the country, is snatching away all the documents of my party. Similarly, if I raid BJP’s party office, what will happen? Then what will be the result of this?

BJP leader Subhendu Adhikari said, Mamata Banerjee does drama, she has already misused her position to save her corrupt leaders and favorite police officers. Shubhendu said that Mamata has broken the dignity of the constitutional post by interfering in the work of ED. Therefore now ED should take legal action against Mamta. In a statement, the ED alleged that the Chief Minister reached the IPAC office along with police officers and snatched away a seized phone, a hard disk and some files from the ED team. ED made it clear that today’s raids have nothing to do with politics.

Mamta Banerjee feels that the ED team had come to the I-PAC office to collect TMC files. BJP alleges that Mamata had come with her police to save I-PAC from money laundering. Mamta says that these are those files, hard disks, laptops, which were being used to make election strategy.

Now the question is, why were the Trinamool Congress strategy file and hard disk kept in the I-PAC office? The office of I-PAC is not the office of any political party. Is it not a violation of law to stop ED from raiding it? Even if it is accepted for a minute that the BJP government used ED for political gains, then did Mamata not use the Bengal Police for the work of Trinamool Congress?

If Mamata takes this issue to the public, then not only BJP, Congress and CPM will also accuse her of using black money through I-PAC. Now for Mamata, there is a well on one side and a ditch on the other. (Rajat Sharma)

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