Mamata Banerjee on Thursday personally interrupted Enforcement Directorate raids on the office of I-PAC, which handles Trinamool’s election strategy, and the home of the company’s chief and carried away what she said were sensitive poll-related documents to prevent the central agency seizing them.

“They (ED officials) have seized the candidate list, party strategy, party plan. Is it the duty of the ED and Amit Shah, the most nasty home minister?” the chief minister said.

The confrontation, coming weeks before the Bengal elections and amid a political slugfest over the ongoing SIR, led to the central agency and I-PAC moving high court.

ED teams from Delhi had raided six locations in Calcutta, including the Sector V office of I-PAC and the Loudon Street home of the political consultancy’s chief Pratik Jain, known to be close to the Trinamool brass.

As the news broke, Mamata arrived at Jain’s apartment at 11.15am, four hours after the ED raid began.

“The naughty home minister cannot protect the country, and he is taking away all my party documents,” she said while leaving the address, carrying a green plastic folder.

She then travelled to I-PAC’s Salt Lake office, remaining there for nearly four hours till 4.22pm.

Mamata linked the raids to the SIR, which she alleges is an underhand move by the BJP to disenfranchise her voters and win the Bengal elections.

“This (ED raid) is a crime. Our election work is going on. Work related to SIR to help people is also ongoing. They brought a forensic team and have transferred all of that,” she said. (See Page 5)

The ED claimed the raids were apolitical and were part of a money-laundering probe relating to a years-old coal pilferage scam, in which people close to Trinamool are being investigated.

It moved high court alleging the chief minister had taken away “key evidence”, documents and electronic devices, and that her actions during the raids “resulted in obstruction in the ongoing investigation”. (See Page 7)

I-PAC, too, moved high court questioning the legality of the ED raids.

Justice Subhra Ghosh asked both parties to file formal applications on Friday.

Mamata announced a 5km protest march from the Jadavpur 8B bus stand to the Hazra crossing from 2pm on Friday.

Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya accused the chief minister of a “criminal offence” that had brought shame to Bengal. A party statement said “law enforcement agencies must be allowed to function independently, professionally, and without political interference”.

The Ranchi-born Jain is co-founder and director of I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee), a private firm that handles data and strategises poll campaigns. (See Page 7)

He studied metallurgical engineering at IIT Bombay and worked with Deloitte before setting up the not-for-profit Citizens for Accountable Governance, the predecessor of I-PAC.

Till late Thursday evening, no one in Trinamool seemed to know what exactly was in the files Mamata had carried away.

An ED release said: “Proceedings were being conducted in a peaceful and professional manner, till the arrival of West Bengal Chief Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee along with a large number of policeofficials.

“Ms. Banerjee entered the residential premises of Prateek Jain, and took away key evidence including physical documents and electronic devices. The CM’s convoy then proceeded to I-PAC’s office premises, from where Ms. Banerjee, her aides, and the state police personnel forcibly removed physical documents and electronic evidence.

“(The) search is evidence-based and is not targeted at any political establishment. No party office has been searched. The search is not linked to any elections, and is part of a regular crackdown on money laundering. The search is conducted strictly in accordance with established legal safeguards.”

Among the places raided was a businessman’s house in Posta, Burrabazar, ED sources said.

Calcutta police commissioner Manoj Verma had arrived at Jain’s house ahead of Mamata.

“...I rang Pratik because he is in charge of (the poll strategy of) my party. They were collecting hard disks, phones. It is because of the election (that) they are collecting all information about my party. I took it all,” she said.

Soon after her arrival at the Sector V office, security was tightened around the multi-storey commercial building. Trinamool supporters gathered outside and chanted slogans against the Union government.

Bengal director-general of police Rajeev Kumar too arrived at the I-PAC office, located on the 11th floor of the building, as did minister Sujit Bose and several others, including the chief secretary.

Sometime after Mamata’s arrival, the police were seen carrying out several files from the I-PAC office and placing them in a white SUV.

Around 6.45pm, the ED team left the Sector V office, almost 11 hours after they had come, escorted by a battery of CRPF jawans. By then, several hundred Trinamool supporters had arrived outside the office, but without partyflags.

Slogans of “Joy Bangla” greeted the ED team and the CRPF members as they left the building.

This isn’t the first time Mamata has taken a stand against a central agency raid in Calcutta. In 2019, she had staged a sit-in at Esplanade after a CBI team visited the official residence of Rajeev,then the Calcutta police commissioner, to question him about a clutch of deposit-mobilisation companies.

“You all know that I-PAC is the authorised team of the All India Trinamool Congress, and you are snatching papers from that authorised team, looting all papers,” Mamata said outside the Sector Voffice.

“We are a registered political party, we submit income tax. We have elected members and have our audits. If the ED required anything, they could have collected them from the income-tax department.

“Whenever elections come, income tax sends notice but the BJP doesn’t get any notice, even if they are dakats (bandits), the biggest criminal, money power, muscle power killer of democracy.”

An IPAC official told The Telegraph: “If you are managing election campaigning and strategising for a political party, you have to handle a lot of data. The fear is it may fall in the wrong hands.”

I-PAC is a private limited company with three directors. It worked for Narendra Modi in 2014 and has the DMK among its clients.

Prashant Kishor, once its most prominent face and one of the architects of Trinamool’s 2021 poll victory, is no longer with the agency.