New Delhi. A hearing was held in the Supreme Court on Wednesday in the case of ED raid related to I-Pack in West Bengal. During the hearing, Mamata government alleged that the central government is using the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as a weapon in those states where opposition parties are in power.
The central agency retorted and said that we are not anyone’s weapon. Rather, the Mamata government in Bengal threatened us. During this, on the debate between the two sides, the Supreme Court has said that we are going to decide who is being used as a weapon and who is being threatened.
Let us tell you that ED had filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the I-Pac Raid case. ED alleges that during the raid on the offices of I-Pac on January 8, CM Mamata Banerjee and Bengal Police officials obstructed their action. The Supreme Court has postponed the hearing of the case till March 18. Earlier the hearing was postponed to 3 February. The Supreme Court said on January 15 that the West Bengal Chief Minister’s obstruction in the ED investigation is a very serious issue.
I-PAC i.e. Indian Political Action Committee is a political consultancy company. It carries out large-scale election campaigns for political parties. The company and its director Prateek Jain are accused of money laundering in the coal theft scam worth crores of rupees. CBI had registered an FIR in this case on 27 November 2020. The whole matter is related to money laundering of Rs 2,742 crore. It is alleged that Rs 20 crores were transferred to I-pack through Hawala. ED started its investigation on 28 November 2020. On January 8, 2026, ED had raided the house and office of I-PACK and its director Jain in Kolkata.
ED’s search operation was going on when CM Mamata Banerjee reached I-PAC office along with other TMC leaders. After this there was a lot of uproar. Mamta came out of the office carrying many files and talked to the media. Chief Minister Mamata accused the central agency of excessive interference. The party has alleged that I-PAC works as the party’s election strategist and just before the assembly elections, the ED conducted the raid to obtain information related to confidential election strategy.