ED raids I-PAC office, TMC IT chief's home in Kolkata; CM Mamata Banerjee alleges job of 'nastiest' home minister

The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday carried out raids on the premises of political consultancy firm I-PAC in Kolkata in connection with a money laundering case, PTI reported citing official sources.

The home of its co-founder and director and Trinamool Congress IT head, Prateek Jain, is also being searched.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rushed to the residence of Jain. Calling the exercise an act of intimidation, Banerjee said, “This is not law enforcement, this is political vendetta. The home minister is behaving like the nastiest home minister, not someone who protects the country.”

Banerjee termed the raids as "most unfortunate". She also questioned if it was the job of the Union Home Minister to raid homes of IT chiefs of political parties, adding that this was political vendetta.

The chief minister alleged that ED officials were attempting to seize TMC’s hard disks, internal documents and sensitive organisational data.

“They have raided the residence of our IT chief. They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which has details about our candidates for the assembly polls. I have brought those back,” Banerjee told the media.

Calling the exercise an act of intimidation, Banerjee said, “This is not law enforcement, this is political vendetta. The home minister is behaving like the nastiest home minister, not someone who protects the country.”

The exact motivation for the searches and details of the case being probed were not immediately clear.