Bengal ED Raids Row: The High Court hears the case regarding the ED raids controversy; the hearing had to be postponed last time due to the crowd.

The Calcutta High Court is hearing a case today related to the controversy surrounding the ED raids in West Bengal. The hearing had been postponed earlier because a large crowd had gathered at the court premises, preventing the proceedings from taking place on the scheduled date. The court had adjourned the hearing on January 9th.

What did the ED say?

On January 9th, the ED claimed in its petition that the state's top political leadership was directly involved in the incident and that the police force was misused. The agency urged the court to direct the CBI to register an FIR and investigate the role of all individuals involved, including the Chief Minister. The agency stated that a CBI investigation is necessary because both the Calcutta High Court and the Supreme Court have consistently held that where high-ranking and powerful individuals in the state are involved in committing cognizable offenses, the investigation should be transferred to the CBI.

The ED also demanded the immediate seizure, sealing, forensic preservation, and return to the ED's legal custody of all digital devices, electronic records, storage media, and documents that were illegally and forcibly removed from the search locations.

TMC also filed a petition

The TMC has also filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court against the ED raids on I-PAC. The TMC's petition states that the petitioner, TMC, is raising its voice and protesting against the State Intelligence Report (SIR) in Bengal. Therefore, the ED is conducting searches and seizures at the TMC's political strategy office (I-PAC) and the home of its co-founder. The TMC's petition also states that the ED illegally seized confidential data.

What is the case?

On Thursday (January 8th), the ED raided the Salt Lake office of I-PAC and the residence of its director, Prateek Jain, in connection with a money laundering case related to the alleged coal scam. The agency alleges that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, with the help of the police, forcibly entered Jain's residence and took away crucial digital evidence and documents despite the officers' objections. According to the ED, this resulted in the search operation failing and no seizures being made.