Amit Shah is nasty, naughty’: Mamata Banerjee says ED snatched our poll strategy, targets Union home minister; how raids on IPAC office spiral into chaos

KOLKATA: The ED on Thursday conducted searches at political consultancy firm I-PAC’s office in Salt Lake and its director’s Loudon Street home in connection with a five-year-old case, prompting CM Mamata Banerjee to call it political vendetta and “a crime” and dub Union home minister Amit Shah “nasty and naughty”.

CM Banerjee later said she realised something was amiss when she was unable to reach Jain by phone. KP commissioner Varma and other senior cops reached his Loudon Street residence between 10.30am and 11.30am to “verify the credentials” of ED officials.

Banerjee arrived there around noon and stayed for seven minutes before leaving with a green folder, a hard drive and a mobile phone. “Amit Shah has sent ED to snatch our party’s poll strategy and candidate list. Is this the ED’s work?” she asked.

“They searched our IT cell office and the house of our IT cell-in-charge to collect hard disks and documents having our poll strategies. The candidate list, party strategy, everything is here. The nasty, 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 BJP office?” Banerjee asked, questioning the timing and intent of the searches, before heading for I-PAC’s Sector V office.

How events unfolded

Mamata Banerjee is seen leaving I-PAC chief’s Louden Street home with a green folder. She then headed to the firm’s office in Salt Lake Sector V (right), where ED conducted a day-long search

I-PAC is a political consultancy firm. Started in 2013 as Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), it strategised for BJP (2014 LS polls), Nitish Kumar (2015), Amarinder Singh (2017), Rahul Gandhi for UP (2017), Jagan Reddy (2019), Uddhav Thackeray (2019), Kejriwal (2020), Stalin (2021) and Mamata Banerjee (2021)

Why was it searched?

For link to a 2020 coal-scam case. ED claims a “hawala” operator facilitated transactions of tens of crores of rupees to Indian PAC Consulting Private Limited, the registered firm

If someone tries to kill you, wont you defend

Mamata Banerjee is set to hit the streets and lead a protest march against ED searches from Jadavpur 8B bus stand to the Hazra crossing on Friday afternoon.

“They lodged a false case against me (in Calcutta High Court). If they try to steal from my home, will I not try to prevent it? They stole everything — all data, including the SIR list — a clear case of theft. If someone tries to kill you, will you not try to defend yourself?”

Banerjee said at a Gangasagar Mela transit camp on Thursday afternoon. TMC sources said Friday’s rally is scheduled to begin at 2 pm.

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