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KOLKATA: Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on multiple Kolkata addresses linked to political consultancy I-PAC escalated into an extraordinary stand-off between the central agency and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Thursday as the latter shadowed the search teams all day, got police to “verify their credentials”, took away files and storage devices, and claimed that their brief was to “snatch” Trinamool Congress’s poll strategy and prospective candidates’ list. “Amit Shah has sent ED… Is this ED’s work? The nasty and naughty home minister, who cannot protect the country, is trying to take away our party papers to win the election. What will happen if I raid the BJP office?” Mamata said. ED said it is investigating the Prashant Kishor-founded I-PAC, whose official website mentions both Trinamool and the Bengal govt as clients, in a 2020 money laundering case linked to a coal scam. On Thursday, ED searched I-PAC’s office in the tech hub of Sector V in Salt Lake and the central Kolkata home of its director Pratik Jain. “Proceedings were being conducted in a peaceful and professional manner till the arrival of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee along with a large number of police officials,” the ED complaint says.
