---

In Delhi, TMC MP Mahua Moitra was detained by police on Friday during a protest outside Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s office against the ED raids.

---

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and political consultancy firm I-PAC on Thursday moved the Calcutta High Court, challenging the legality of Enforcement Directorate (ED) searches at multiple locations linked to the firm in Kolkata and Bidhannagar, local sources reported.

Earlier, the ED approached the court, alleging “illegal interference” during its operations. The matter is scheduled for hearing on Friday.

The central agency carried out searches at I-PAC’s office in Salt Lake, the residence of the firm’s head Pratik Jain, and at a trader’s office in the city’s Posta area in connection with an alleged money laundering investigation.

TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Jain’s residence around noon while the search was ongoing, staying for about 20 to 25 minutes. She emerged holding a green file, saying that officials were seizing party documents ahead of the Assembly elections.

“Is it the duty of [Union] Home Minister Amit Shah and the ED to take away all my party documents?” Banerjee asked. “If I go to the Bharatiya Janata Party office, what will be the result?”

Banerjee is scheduled to lead a protest in Kolkata on Friday against the ED’s actions, ANI reported.

I-PAC, founded by political strategist Prashant Kishor, had managed TMC’s campaign in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, which the party won decisively. The state is expected to hold polls in the next three to four months.

The ED accused Banerjee of entering Jain’s home and taking “key evidences including physical documents and electronic devices.” The agency said the searches were “peaceful” until Banerjee arrived and asserted that the actions were “evidence-based and not targeted at any political establishment,” noting that no party office had been raided.

The raids were based on a first information report by the Central Bureau of Investigation into an alleged coal smuggling syndicate, which allegedly stole coal from Eastern Coalfields Limited leasehold areas in West Bengal, the ED said.

Banerjee said the ED was confiscating TMC “documents and hard disks, which has details about our party candidates for Assembly polls.” She added, “I have brought those back,” and claimed that the agency had “raided my IT sector office, and searched the residence of the in-charge of my IT sector.”

Meanwhile, in Delhi, TMC MP Mahua Moitra was detained by police on Friday during a protest outside Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s office against the ED raids.

Separately, authorities arrested a man for allegedly sending a death threat to West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose, warning to “blast” the governor, officials said.

---