Mamata’s Rally Fury After ED Clash At I-PAC Raid, ‘Naughty HM’ Slams Amit Shah
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to spearhead a protest march on Friday, one day after a tense confrontation with Enforcement Directorate officials who raided the Kolkata office and home of political consultancy I-PAC.
The Trinamool Congress leader announced the demonstration in response to the central agency’s search operations, which she described as an effort to “loot” her party’s internal records.
Reports indicate Banerjee will march from Jadavpur 8B bus stand to Hazra crossing, spanning more than 5 kilometers, and has called on residents to join the demonstration.
Banerjee identified Pratik Jain as the head of TMC’s IT operations. She characterized the ED’s actions as “political vendetta,” alleging the agency sought to extract polling strategies, voter information, and digital records.
Kolkata Confrontation Between ED and Mamata Banerjee
Thursday witnessed a series of dramatic developments in Kolkata when Chief Minister Banerjee arrived at I-PAC head Pratik Jain’s home during the ED’s search operation.
The ED and Mamata Banerjee offered contradictory versions of the incident. The investigating agency claimed the chief minister forced her way into the property and removed crucial evidence, while the TMC leader maintained that the ED confiscated her party’s vital materials—including hard drives, financial records, and political documents.
Justifying her intervention during Thursday’s ongoing searches, Banerjee stated: “If they attack us over SIR, make out a false case against me or try to steal our documents, should I not try to resist such attempts?”
Angry Mamata at I-PAC Office
Thursday afternoon footage captured Mamata Banerjee moving past cameras, journalists, and crowds as she appeared at Pratik Jain’s office during the ED operation.
According to news agency PTI, the searches were connected to a money laundering investigation into an alleged coal theft scheme worth multiple crores.
“They have raided the residence of our IT chief. They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which has details about our candidates for the assembly polls. I have brought those back,” PTI quoted an angry Mamata Banerjee as saying.
“They (ED) have stolen everything, all data, SIR list,” she later stated, noting that such operations typically occur immediately before elections. West Bengal’s assembly elections are expected in the coming months.
Chaotic Scenes with Documents, Mamata’s “Naughty HM” Remark
On Thursday, Mamata Banerjee criticized the government, describing the ED searches targeting Pratik Jain and I-PAC as an effort to “steal” Trinamool Congress data ahead of Bengal’s assembly elections.
She labeled Union Home Minister Amit Shah as “naughty,” accusing him of weaponizing agencies to threaten opposition parties. “This is not law enforcement. Is this how the nastiest and naughty home minister functions, who cannot protect the country and is sending agencies to harass before elections?” she remarked after visiting Pratik Jain’s home.
VIDEO | Kolkata: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) visits I-PAC Director Prateek Jain’s residence after an ED raid and says, “Is it the duty of Home Minister Amit Shah and the ED to take away all my party documents? If I go to the BJP party office, what will be the… pic.twitter.com/lRQOpKtVN4
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 8, 2026
She subsequently called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “control” his Home Minister and challenged him to defeat TMC “in a democratic way.”
“You are using agencies to loot our papers, our strategy, our voters, our data, our Bengal… By doing all this, the number of seats you were getting will be reduced to zero…,” Mamata told reporters.
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Local television footage also showed individuals hurriedly carrying files while journalists questioned them during the confusion surrounding Mamata Banerjee’s arrival at Pratik Jain’s residence.
Mamata Banerjee was captured holding documents in a green folder while speaking to media, claiming the ED attempted to seize sensitive organizational information during the searches.