A raid by the Enforcement Directorate at the office of the political consultancy firm, I-PAC, in
Kolkata on Thursday in connection with a money laundering case linked to coal smuggling
escalated the political slugfest between the Trinamool Congress and its principal challenger,
Bharatiya Janata Party, ahead of the assembly elections in West Bengal.

Chief Minister and the Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee, stormed into the
residence of Pratik Jain, the head of the I-PAC, and the office of the consultancy firm, and left
with files and electronic devices, even while the ED officials were continuing searches in both
locations. She took a not-so-veiled dig at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, calling him a “nasty”

and “naughty” home minister, and accusing him of getting the ED to raid the I-PAC, engaged by the TMC to provide political consultancy, to collect information about her party’s strategy for the upcoming elections. The ED moved the Calcutta High Court, alleging that the chief minister, as well as police officers and other bureaucrats of the state government, who accompanied her,

took away documents and electronic evidence. The BJP lashed out at the TMC supremo,
accusing her of interfering in an ongoing investigation by a central agency.