Searches conducted as part of money laundering probe into alleged multi-crore coal pilferage scam; family alleges theft at home by the probing agency
TMC members in Kolkata stage a protest against the ED’s raid. Pic/PTI
The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted searches at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the home of its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata as part of a money laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam, official sources said.
The I-PAC’s office in Salt Lake and Jain’s house on Loudon Street are among about 10 premises, including four in Delhi, being raided by the federal probe agency since 7 am, they said.
Jain, the co-founder and a director of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and an IIT-Bombay alumnus, is being raided as there is specific evidence against him related to certain hawala transactions and cash deals emanating from the coal scam case in West Bengal, the sources said.
I-PAC chief Pratik Jain
Jain is also the head of the IT cell of the Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal.
The ED case stems from a November 2020 FIR filed by the CBI, which alleged a multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields mines in West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol. Local coal operator Anup Majhi, alias Lala, is the prime suspect in the case.
The ED earlier questioned Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, the 38-year-old nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and claimed that he was a beneficiary of the funds.
Mamata Banerjee
Family alleges theft by ED
Jain’s family filed a police complaint against the ED, alleging theft of important documents during a raid at home, an officer said.
The search operation, which began at 7 am, continued for over nine hours, an official of the probe agency said, adding that ED officials left Jain’s residence on Loudon Street in the southern part of the city around 3 pm.
“Shortly after that, Pratik Jain’s wife filed a complaint at Shakespeare Sarani police station alleging theft by the ED. It is alleged in the complaint that essential documents were stolen from their home during the raid,” a police officer said.
‘Politically motivated’
Mamata Banerjee reacted sharply to the ED action and reached the residence of Jain in an official convoy, terming the raids “politically motivated and unconstitutional”. ED sources said the action was taken “purely on the merits of the coal scam case and the proceeds of crime linked to it, and there was no political angle” to it. The officials conducting the searches are seizing specific computer peripherals and documents, they added.
Condemning the ED action, Banerjee said, “They have raided the residence of our IT chief. They are confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which have details about our candidates for the Assembly polls. I have brought those back.” She also accused the central agency of trying to take away hard disks, mobile phones, candidate lists and internal strategy documents of the ruling party.
Following this, the ED sought permission from the Calcutta High Court to file a petition alleging interference in its investigation alleging that CM Banerjee entered Jain’s residence and took away key evidence including physical documents, electronic devices.
The agency further claimed that the CM, along with her aides and police personnel, also went to the I-PAC office, from where documents and electronic evidence were forcibly removed. I-PAC also moved the HC over the central agencie’s searches.
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