Suvendu Adhikari terms Mamata Banerjee's visit to Pratik Jain's house as 'interference' in ED's probe

Kolkata: Leader of Opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari termed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to IPAC chief Pratik Jain's house during the ED raid on Thursday as "unconstitutional and interference" in the central agency's probe.

Condemning Banerjee's visit to Jain's residence during the central agency's raid, he said that the ED should take steps against the chief minister as per law.

"I feel that the chief minister and the Kolkata police commissioner's visit was unethical, unconstitutional and direct interference in the central agency's investigation," Adhikari told reporters soon after their visit to Jain's residence at Loudon Street here, as an Enforcement Directorate (ED) raid was going on there.

Jain is the co-founder of the Indian Political Action Committee, or I-PAC. He is also the head of the IT cell of the Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal.

The consultancy firm worked with the Trinamool Congress and the West Bengal government after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP leader said that Banerjee had gone to the then Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar's official residence during a CBI raid there in 2022.

"She had also sat on a dharna for five hours when some ministers were detained by the CBI," the BJP leader said.

"A wrong message will go to the people of West Bengal if the central agency does not take action as per the constitutional norms," he said.

Adhikari claimed that the state police had raided his MLA office in Nandigram without a search warrant.

"I challenge the chief minister to raid the BJP offices; they will not find anything like the amount of cash recovered from one of their leaders' associates' residence," he said.