Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs were detained by Delhi police on Friday for staging a dharna outside Home Minister Amit Shah’s office against the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raid on the I-PAC office in Kolkata.
The MPs alleged that the probe agency is being misused by the Centre.
All detained MPs were taken to Parliament Street Police Station. Among those involved were Derek O’Brien, Mahua Moitra, Satabdi Roy, Kirti Azad, Bapi Haldar, Saket Gokhale, Pratima Mondal, and Dr. Sharmila Sarkar, who raised slogans and held placards reading “Amit Shah’s ED versus People of Bengal” and “No matter how many attacks you launch, Bengal will win again” (Jotoi koro hamla, Abar Jitbe Bangla).
Police forcibly dragged Derek O’Brien and Mahua Moitra to a police van. When Derek O’Brien was being taken by Police, the MP told mediapersons,“You are seeing what is happening to the MPs here.”
The protest came a day after the ED conducted searches at 15 locations, including six in Kolkata (such as the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain) and four in Delhi, as part of a broader probe into alleged illegal coal mining and money laundering.
Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra said, “They are using ED as a tool. They are using ED to attack the political opponent. They are looting our belongings as well as our strategy. ED also looted our documents. They fail to win the election in proper manner and due to that, they are using ED in this manner.”
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to lead a protest on Friday at 2 pm against the ED raids. She will lead a procession from Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand to Hazra More.
Banerjee accused the federal agency of “looting” the TMC’s election strategy and documents while searching I-PAC offices and Jain’s residence.
It was a day of high drama, which saw the Central agency raid I-PAC’s office and the residence of its owner Prateek Jain, prompting the chief minister to visit both places while the raids were on.
Going all guns blazing, the Trinamool supremo targeted Amit Shah and said that the Prime Minister should “control” him.
During the raids, Banerjee personally visited both locations, emerging from Jain’s house with a green file, claiming, “They were seizing all my party’s documents. I have brought them back.”
“Using agencies, they are looting our papers, our strategy, our data, our voters, even Bengal itself. They loot language, they loot everything. BJP will be reduced to zero,” she said. The ED comes under the Department of Revenue of the Ministry of Finance.
The Trinamool supremo’s outburst came as the ED sleuths reached Jain’s Loundon Street residence and Salt Lake office in early morning raids – allegedly in connection with the money trail involved in the coal smuggling case in West Bengal.
Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma was present at the residence shortly before the Chief Minister arrived. I-PAC is responsible for shaping the TMC’s political strategy ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal.
Later in the day, the parties in the dispute knocked on the doors of the judiciary, while multiple police complaints were also filed.
The ED moved the Calcutta High Court bench of Justice Shubra Ghosh seeking permission to file a case against Banerjee for allegedly forcibly taking away documents and digital evidence during the search operations at I-PAC offices and Jain’s residence. The ED alleged that Banerjee’s act amounted to an “abuse” of constitutional authority.
