The BJP on Sunday asked why Bengal’s top bureaucracy was at Mamata Banerjee’s side during the “file heist” from the sites of Thursday’s ED raids on I-PAC, questioning her argument that she had acted as Trinamool Congress chief and not chief minister.
Chief secretary Nandini Chakravorty and director-general of police Rajeev Kumar were seen accompanying Mamata when she arrived at the poll consultancy’s Sector V office on January 8.
Calcutta police commissioner Manoj Verma was with Mamata when she had earlier entered I-PAC chief Pratik Jain’s Loudon Street home during the ED raid.
State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said the party would ask the Centre whether it was legal for senior police and administrative officials to accompany Mamata on a mission to “snatch files from ED custody”.
“The chief minister has politicised the state administration. Why did the DGP and the chief secretary accompany the chief minister?” he said.
Bhattacharya added: “What was the legal authority of these IAS and IPS officers to help Mamata Banerjee snatch files from the ED? We will inform the Union government about this violation, and ask on the basis of which Act they can do so.”
A source in the BJP said: “If Mamata Banerjee went there as a political leader, how did top police and administrative officials accompany her — this is the key question.
“The party will mount pressure on these officials through the central government, as they belong to national cadres of the administrative and police services.”
The BJP wants the Centre to act against these bureaucrats and police officers on the grounds of violating service norms.
“Although the issue is already before the Supreme Court following the ED’s petition, the party wants to raise — irrespective of the verdict — the issue of the politicisation of the police and the administration ahead of the elections,” the source said.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday led a march from the Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand to Deshapriya Park — a counter to Mamata’s march of Friday, held to protest the BJP’s alleged misuse of the ED to target her party. Mamata had walked from the 8B Bus Stand to the Hazra Crossing.
“We want to see all those officers, including CP Manoj Verma and DGP Rajeev Kumar, behind bars,” Suvendu said. “I think the ED did a good job by not resisting her (Mamata). Had they stopped her, she would have taken to the streets and created chaos by claiming an attack on Bengal. The ED acted wisely by not resisting her during the file heist.”
On his X handle, Suvendu tore into the "compromised" Kolkata Police officers. He accused "50 officers" of being "directly complicit in this daylight robbery of justice", named a few and said they must be immediately suspended or dismissed from service for turning the police force "into Mamata Banerjee's personal goon squad".
At a news meet in Delhi, BJP parliamentarian Ravi Shankar Prasad too raised the subject of top officials accompanying Mamata to the raid sites.
“It’s highly suspicious. Mamata Banerjee, what are you hiding? Why are you hiding it? What secret was there that needed to be hidden?”he said.
Convoy attack
The BJP on Sunday protested statewide alleging an attack by armed Trinamool workers on Suvendu’s convoy in Chandrakona, West Midnapore, on Saturday night.
Samik linked the alleged attack with the chief minister’s storming of the EDraid sites.
“Following the chief minister’s actions, Bengal has suffered a national embarrassment. To divert attention from this loss of face, the TMC finally orchestrated an attack on our leader of the Opposition,” he said.
Suvendu had staged a sit-in at the Chandrakona police outpost until midnight, demanding the attackers be arrested. He alleged an attempt to kill him.
The Nandigram MLA has lodged a complaint against 10 Trinamool workers and local leaders, while Trinamool has filed a counter-complaint against central force personnel, alleging an assault on party workers. A source said the Union home ministry had sought a report.
Prasad too condemned Saturday night’s attack, saying: “This attack happened in the presence of the police, but no FIR was registered.”
Suvendu letter
Suvendu on Sunday sent a three-page letter to chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, saying the claims made in Mamata’s earlier letter to him were false or exaggerated, and aimed at derailing the SIR.
“I have written to the Hon’ble Chief Election Commissioner of India, Shri Gyanesh Kumar, strongly countering the baseless, blown out of proportion and exaggerated allegations made by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her letter dated January 10, 2026, regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls,” he wrote on his social media handle.