An Enforcement Directorate plea accusing Mamata Banerjee of the “forcible theft” of “digital devices and documents” could not be heard at Calcutta High Court on Friday because of the din in a packed courtroom, and was postponed till Wednesday.

As the central agency was raiding political consultancy I-PAC’s office and the home of its chief in Calcutta on Thursday, the chief minister had entered both buildings, in the presence of the police brass, and carried away what she said were sensitive poll-related documents. I-PAC manages Trinamool’s election data and strategy.

The ED’s draft petition before the high court lists “forcible theft and illegal removal of digital devices and documents” as one of the grounds for seeking judicial intervention.

It has sought a CBI probe into the “entire incident”, including the role of the chief minister and senior police officers.

“...During lawful search proceedings, digital devices, electronic storage media, and key incriminating documents were forcibly removed, seized away, concealed, and stolen from lawful custody of ED officers by the Hon’ble Chief Minister with the aid of State Police,” the plea says.

It adds that ED officers were “not allowed to perform their lawful duties” at the Salt Lake office of I-PAC, and alleges the “complete subversion of rule of law caused by the political executive”.

On Friday afternoon, the noise in an overcrowded courtroom prompted Justice Subhra Ghosh to walk out and defer the hearing of the petition till January 14.

Keen on an urgent hearing, the ED’s legal team sought a meeting with acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul so he could assign the case to another judge. The team also sent an email to Justice Paul.

While it did not get an audience with the acting chief justice, it received an email from his office, in which he declined to intervene.

The plea will come up before Justice Ghosh on January 14.

Exterior view of the Godrej Waterside Infinity building in Kolkata, where the IPACK office is situated, as the Enforcement Directorate conducts a raid on Thursday, January 8, 2025. Picture by Sanat Kr Sinha

According to the ED, Thursday’s raids on I-PAC’s Salt Lake office and the Loudon Street home of its chief, Pratik Jain, came in connection with a coal pilferage case.

A report the ED team is said to have sent to the agency headquarters in Delhi apparently claims the sleuths had just about located the most important computers from among many in the I-PAC office when Mamata stalled the raid. (See Metro)

Mamata has claimed she took away key party documents, relating to the upcoming Assembly polls and the ongoing SIR, to prevent them falling into the hands of the central agency, which she accuses of acting on the BJP’s behalf.

Senior advocate and Trinamool MP Kalyan Bandyopadhyay, who represented I-PAC in the high court, later told this newspaper that the ED was trying to get hold of his party’s poll data and strategy on the pretext of raids relating to the coal-smuggling probe.

The ED moved the high court on Thursday afternoon and I-PAC told the court that it, too, would do so.

Around the time the din in the courtroom prompted the judge to walk out, Mamata was leading a march from the Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand to Hazra in protest against the raids.

After walking around 10km, Mamata delivered a blistering speech, accusing the BJP of targeting Bengal. “I have done nothing wrong. You were trying to steal all data from my office,” she thundered, daring India’s ruling party to “fight the elections fair if you want to dislodge me”.

The ED’s draft petition says the agency’s coal pilferage probe had found “concrete” evidence that “at least ₹20 crore worth of proceeds of crime was transferred to IPAC through hawala channels”.

Mamata “violated all law and order with the aid of police personnel”, the plea adds.

She “forcibly took possession of all digital devices along with key incriminating documents from the possession of the authorised officer and left”.

The agency has claimed that a series of police cases has been filed against its officers to try and prevent them from discharging their duties.

All the documents and digital devices seized on Thursday must be returned to the ED immediately and the state machinery must be restrained from interfering in the functioning of the central agency, the draft petition says.

At the high court, the matter was listed at 2.30pm. By the time proceedings resumed at 2pm after the lunch recess, the courtroom was jam-packed.

Lawyers affiliated to both the BJP and Trinamool camps and scores of other functionaries and supporters had gathered in numbers. Many who could not enter waited outside.

The courtroom turned noisy, preventing the cases listed from 2pm to 2.30pm from being taken up.

Justice Ghosh expressed disappointment more than once and asked the non-litigants to leave the room. “I am not used to conducting a hearing in such a situation,” she said before walking out.

Bandyopadhyay requested her to conduct the hearing, but she did not yield.

Minutes later, a court officer stepped in and said the matter had been postponed to January 14.