ED searches I-PAC office, its head Pratik Jain in Kolkata in coal 'scam' case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted searches at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the home of its director Pratik Jain in Kolkata as part of a money laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam, official sources said.

The I-PAC's office in Salt Lake and Jain's house on Loudon Street are among about 10 premises, including four in Delhi, being raided by the federal probe agency in the presence of central paramilitary teams since 7 am, they said.

Jain, the co-founder and a director of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and an IIT-Bombay alumnus, is being covered as there is “specific” evidence against him related to certain hawala transactions and cash deals emanating from the coal “scam" case in West Bengal, the sources said.

Jain is also the head of the IT cell of the Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal.

The ED case stems from a November 2020 FIR filed by the CBI, which alleged a multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields mines in West Bengal's Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol.

Local coal operator Anup Majhi, alias Lala, is the prime suspect in the case.

The ED earlier questioned Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, the 38-year-old nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and claimed that he was a beneficiary of the funds obtained from the illegal coal trade.

Mamata Banerjee reacted sharply to the ED action and reached the residence of Jain in an official convoy, terming the raids “politically motivated” and “unconstitutional”.

ED sources said the action was taken “purely on the merits of the coal scam case and the proceeds of crime linked to it, and there was no political angle” to it.

The agency is undertaking the action based on “specific” evidence that shows the “involvement” of Jain and some others, they told PTI.

The officials conducting the searches are seizing specific computer peripherals and documents, they added.

A response from the I-PAC on PTI's query on the ED action is awaited.

Condemning the ED action, Mamata Banerjee said, "They have raided the residence of our IT chief. They are confiscating my party's documents and hard disks, which have details about our candidates for the Assembly polls. I have brought those back.”

She also accused the central agency of trying to take away hard disks, mobile phones, candidate lists and internal strategy documents of the ruling party.

“Is it the duty of the ED to collect a political party’s data,” she asked.

I-PAC was founded by political strategist Prashant Kishor ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He later moved on to form a political outfit called Jan Suraaj, which drew a blank in last year’s Bihar elections.

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

The I-PAC website shares a tab on the work done by it for the Trinamool and the West Bengal government during the 2021 Assembly polls titled 'Didi-R 10 Ongikar'.

According to the website, I-PAC works with “visionary” leaders with a “proven” track record.

The group helps them set a citizen-centric agenda and partners with them to conceptualise and implement the most effective methods of taking it to the public and gathering mass support.