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KOLKATA: Alleging violation of ‘right to privacy’, TMC, in its petition against ED before Calcutta HC, said the search and seizure at the office of its political strategist I-PAC and the residence of the firm’s director came after party chief Mamata Banerjee threatened to go to Supreme Court against the chaotic implementation of SIR process, report Subrata Chattoraj and Srishti Lakhotia. The petition stated under the pretext of investigation, ED “unlawfully” gained access to and control over TMC’s electoral roll management, campaign planning, and political strategy, with the intent to disrupt election process.”The entire action is out of political vendetta and to scuttle the democratic process of free and fair upcoming elections,” it stated. The party sought a direction to ED to return “confidential and sensitive” documents seized during the searches, which, according to it, included “political documents relating to campaign strategy, internal assessments, research inputs, organisational coordination, and electoral roll-related data used for electioneering purposes” in the forthcoming Bengal assembly polls. It claimed that these materials had no “nexus” with any scheduled offence or alleged proceeds of crime, and did not fall within the scope of the probe under PMLA. “Such targeted seizure amounts to an impermissible intrusion into TMC’s right to privacy under Article 21 and its constitutional right to participate meaningfully in the democratic process under Article 19.” The petition stated I-PAC, a professional political consulting organisation that provides strategic, research, communications and on-ground campaign support to political parties and their members across India, has been associated with TMC for 6 years, providing end-to-end campaign support. It is “intrinsically” linked with the party in maintaining “crucial, private, confidential and sensitive data”, including that of the upcoming election, it said. ED’s action, TMC said, was in “transgression of its powers and authority” under PMLA. It called the search “a calculative and well planned action to disturb the political atmosphere and scenario in the state”.
