Kolkata : The controversy over ED raids at two locations linked to the political consultancy group I-PAC and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee taking away documents from the sites, has now reached the Calcutta High Court. The ED, which claimed that the raids were linked to the Bengal coal mining scam case, accused Mamata of “obstructing” an official investigation.
If you want to know a blow-by-blow account of the sequence of events, you can read it here. In a detailed statement on the drama that unfolded in Kolkata, the ED accused Mamata Banerjee and her aides of “forcibly removing” physical documents and electronic devices during the raids. The ED claimed that Mamata entered the residence of Jain and removed key evidence. Visuals from the site showed a visibly livid Mamata exiting Jain’s house with a heavy green file.
She claimed the searches were carried out at the behest of Home Minister Amit Shah. Separately, the family of Jain has filed a police complaint against the ED, alleging theft of important documents during the searches. The agency stated that senior cops, including the police chief and deputy commissioner of police, South Kolkata, also visited the premises to verify the identity of the ED officials.
The agency said it amounted to obstruction of an ongoing investigation under the PMLA. Mamata also staged a sit-in protest at the I-PAC’s office before leaving around 5 pm. The Trinamool has announced a mega protest march on Friday. The ED maintained that the searches were not targeted at any political party and were part of a money laundering probe linked to the multi-crore coal ‘scam’ case.
The case originates from a CBI FIR registered in Kolkata on November 27, 2020, against coal smuggling kingpin Anup Majhi and others. The ED filed a case under the PMLA on November 28. The agencies have alleged that Majhi was the kingpin of a coal smuggling syndicate that operated out of Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) leasehold areas in the Asansol district. Investigators claimed that the syndicate illegally excavated and stole coal from ECL mines and sold it to factories and industrial units across Bankura, Bardhaman, Purulia and other districts of Bengal.
Read Also : Not Directed Removal Of Every Dog From Streets : SC