New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday, April 2, conducted fresh searches at some premises linked to the executives of political consultancy firm I-PAC and some others in multiple cities, officials said.
The raids are being undertaken at locations in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi in connection with an alleged coal smuggling and pilferage scam of West Bengal, according to officials.
The premises of I-PAC co-founder and director Rishi Raj Singh are among those covered, they said.
The federal probe agency conducted raids in this case in January at the I-PAC office as well as at the Kolkata residence of its founder and one of the directors, Pratik Jain.
Singh and Jain were recently summoned by the ED to record their statements.
They have approached the Delhi High Court to quash these notices issued to them, citing ongoing election work in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
ED raids on I-PAC
The ED conducted had a search at the Salt Lake office of I-PAC and the south Kolkata residence of its director Pratik Jain on January 8 this year as part of its probe into the alleged coal scam-linked money laundering case. Some other locations in the state and Delhi were also raided.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had questioned the timing of the operations and claimed mala fide intent on the part of the investigative agency, alleging that the searches were carried out in the run-up to the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections and after a prolonged period of inaction.
While the searches were going on, CM Banerjee visited Pratik Jain’s residence at Loudon Street and I-PAC’s office in Bidhannagar after receiving information that sensitive political data, which was “vitally linked to the AITC’s strategy for the upcoming Legislative Assembly election”, was being accessed during the searches.
TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee also alleged that the central agency had come to “steal information” and were being misused to settle political scores by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The ED had approached the Calcutta High Court, seeking a CBI probe against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleging that she, with the aid of the police, took away incriminating documents from the agency’s custody during the raid at Pratik Jain’s home. Later, the agency moved the apex court after the high court deferred the hearing.
(With inputs from PTI.)
