The Delhi Police on Friday detained Trinamool Congress MPs who were protesting outside Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s office against what the party alleges were illegal searches by the Enforcement Directorate at several locations in West Bengal, including the office of political consultancy I-PAC a day earlier.
The MPs were released from the Parliament Street police station later in the day, PTI reported.
The Trinamool Congress said that the police action of forcibly removing eight of its MPs from a peaceful protest outside the Central Secretariat was “undemocratic, unconstitutional, shameful”.
The party’s Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra and Rajya Sabha member Derek O’Brien were among the leaders detained by the police, a video posted on social media showed. The MPs had been taken to the Parliament Street police station.
“This is an open assault on democracy and the Constitution,” West Bengal’s ruling party said on social media. “Only [the BJP]’s fear drives such reckless use of force.”
Hours after the raids by the ED, the Trinamool Congress and the Indian Political Action Committee on Thursday moved the Calcutta High Court challenging the legality of the searches at several locations linked to the political consultancy in Kolkata and Bidhannagar.
I-PAC has managed the Trinamool Congress’ election campaigns, including in the 2021 Assembly elections.
The ED also approached the High Court, alleging “illegal interference” during its search operations. The matter is scheduled to be heard on Friday.
The central law enforcement agency on Thursday conducted searches at I-PAC’s office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake area, the residence of the firm’s head Pratik Jain and the office of a trader in the city’s Posta neighbourhood in connection with an investigation into alleged money laundering.
Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at Jain’s home around noon while the search was underway and stayed for about 20 to 25 minutes. She then came out with a green file and claimed that the central agency’s officials were “taking away” party documents ahead of the Assembly polls.
The state is expected to head for polls in the next three to four months.
Banerjee alleged that the ED was confiscating the TMC’s “documents and hard disks, which has details about our party candidates” for the polls.
The ED on Thursday accused Banerjee of entering Jain’s residence and taking away “key evidences including physical documents and electronic devices”.
The agency stated that searches had been conducted in a “peaceful manner” until Banerjee arrived at the site. It claimed that the “search is evidence-based and is not targeted at any political establishment”, and said that no party office had been searched.
The searches were based on a first information report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation into an alleged coal smuggling syndicate that was used to “steal and illegally excavate coal from ECL [Eastern Coalfields Limited] leasehold areas of West Bengal”, the ED said.
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