ED moves SC over Mamata’s action, seeks a CBI probe
POLITY – STATES
12 JANUARY 2026
- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has approached the Supreme Court and sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the alleged obstruction of its searches at the offices of the political consultancy firm I-PAC and its co-founder Pratik Jain in Kolkata by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, State officials and other individuals.
- The anti-money laundering agency has argued that the intervention of the Chief Minister has derailed a lawful investigation into coal smuggling.
- Vital evidence, both physical and electronic, connected to the probe was removed and the searches were bulldozed, amounting to a “gross obstruction of justice”. The sites of the searches descended into scenes of a “showdown” through the illegal intervention of the State machinery itself.
- The State of West Bengal has already filed a caveat in the Supreme Court to ensure that no ex parte orders, possibly granting relief to the ED, are passed without hearing it first.
- The ED had also moved the Calcutta High Court seeking action against Ms. Banerjee and officials under the criminal law for disrupting the searches conducted in accordance with the procedure established by the law.
- The Trinamool Congress had consulted with the firm over the past few years and I-PAC had helped the party shape its electoral and political strategy in the 2021 Assembly election and subsequent elections in West Bengal.
- The ED said that the search was connected to a probe into a coal smuggling syndicate and entities linked to hawala money, and was conducted strictly in accordance with established legal safeguards.
