Mamata Banerjee’s protest demonstration today following a heated altercation with the ED and a jab at “naughty HM” over the I-PAC raid

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will lead a protest rally on Friday, one day after a dramatic confrontation with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during its raids on the office and house of political consulting firm I-PAC in Kolkata. The central probe agency’s searches, which the TMC supremo alleged were an attempt to “loot” her party’s documents, prompted her to announce the rally.Mamata Banerjee has asked people to participate in the protest procession, which is expected to span more than 5 km from the Jadavpur 8B bus stop to the Hazra bridge.

Banerjee identified Pratik Jain as the head of the IT department of her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC). She claimed that the ED utilized the raids to feed data, poll tactics, and information into its system as part of a “political vendetta.”

When CM Banerjee arrived at I-PAC chief Pratik Jain’s home on Thursday when the ED was conducting searches, a spectacular series of events took place in Kolkata.Mamata Banerjee and the ED gave different versions of what transpired. The TMC head claimed that the ED had removed the party’s crucial materials, including a hard drive, financial records, and political documents, while the investigation agency accused the chief minister of breaking into the home and stealing significant evidence.

Banerjee defended her move to intervene during the ongoing raids on Thursday, saying: “If they attack us over SIR, make out a false case against me or try to steal our documents, should I not try to resist such attempts?”

Images from Thursday afternoon showed Mamata Banerjee wandering past cameras, reporters, and other people as she arrived at Pratik Jain’s office, where the ED was conducting raids.  According to a report by news agency, the searches were a part of a money laundering investigation into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal theft fraud.

“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,” a furious Mamata Banerjee was quoted as saying.

Later in the day, she stated, “They (ED) have stolen everything, all data, SIR list,” noting that these searches always occur just before elections. In a few months, West Bengal is expected to hold assembly elections. The ED searches against Pratik Jain and I-PAC were described by Mamata Banerjee on Thursday as an attempt to “steal” the Trinamool Congress’s data prior to the Bengal assembly elections.

She even termed Union home minister Amit Shah “naughty”, accusing him of misusing agencies to intimidate other parties. “This is not law enforcement. Is this how the nastiest and naughty home minister functions, who cannot protect the country and is sending agencies to harass before elections?” she said after visiting Pratik Jain’s residence.