The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday approached the Calcutta High Court challenging Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its chief, seeking restraint on the “misuse and dissemination” of documents seized during the search operations.
In its petition, the ruling party in West Bengal alleged that the ED confiscated sensitive political data intended for TMC’s use in the upcoming assembly elections, describing the action as an “arbitrary, mala fide, and colourable exercise of power.”
PTI has obtained the synopsis of the petition, which references the ED’s search and seizure operations conducted under Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, on January 8. The agency maintained that the operations were part of a probe into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam.
“The petitioner submits that the seized articles and electronic data consist of confidential political data/information/documents relating to campaign strategy, internal assessments, research inputs, organisational coordination, and electoral roll-related data used for electioneering purposes in the forthcoming West Bengal Legislative Assembly Election, 2026,” the TMC stated in its petition.
“The said materials have no proximate, causal, or even remote nexus with any scheduled offence or alleged proceeds of crime, and do not fall within the scope of investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering, 2002,” it added.
The TMC further alleged that the ED operations aimed to “unlawfully accessing and controlling the petitioner's electoral roll management, campaign planning, and political strategy, with the clear intent to disrupt a free and fair electoral process” under the pretext of investigation.
“Such targeted seizure amounts to an impermissible intrusion into the petitioner's right to privacy under Article 21 and its constitutional right to participate meaningfully in the democratic process under Article 19," the petition said.
“The petitioner apprehends grave prejudice, misuse, and dissemination of the seized data, which, if not restrained, would irreversibly damage the integrity of the electoral process and undermine constitutional democracy, warranting immediate intervention of this Hon'ble Court,” it added.
