Ahead of assembly elections, ED raids I-PAC's premises in Kolkata

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted searches on the premises of political consultancy firm I-PAC in Kolkata, along with some others, as part of a money laundering investigation, official sources said.

The I-PAC premises of its co-founder and director, Pratik Jain, are also being searched, they said.

The raids, which started early on Thursday morning, are going on simultaneously at the office of I-PAC office on the 11th floor of a building in Salt Lake, Jain's residence on Loudon Street and another trader's office at Burrabazar's Posta.

Founded by Prashant Kishor ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, I-PAC has been working with the Trinamool Congress and the Bengal government post-2019 Lok Sabha polls, though Kishor has moved into full-time politics.

I-PAC was instrumental in the party returning to power in the 2021 Assembly polls with a thumping majority and also in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The raids come just months before the state is due to go into polls, with the BJP the main challenger.

More details are awaited.