Overview
- In a writ petition, the Enforcement Directorate alleges Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and senior police officials obstructed searches, removed files and devices, and wrongfully confined officers during January 8 raids tied to I-PAC.
- The ED urges the Supreme Court to direct the CBI to register FIRs against the chief minister, the state DGP and Kolkata’s police commissioner, and to secure and restore seized digital material to ED custody.
- The agency says High Court relief proved elusive after hearings were disrupted and adjourned, with a fresh listing set for January 14, and it plans an urgent mention before the Supreme Court.
- Kolkata Police have filed FIRs against ED and CRPF personnel alleging theft, trespass and IT Act violations, while the Trinamool Congress and I-PAC deny wrongdoing and say the material relates to confidential campaign strategy.
- The searches spanned 10 locations in West Bengal and Delhi in a coal-smuggling money-laundering probe, with the ED alleging hawala transfers of roughly ₹10–20 crore to I-PAC linked to its work for TMC, including the 2022 Goa campaign.