Chaos ensued after West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Monday rushed to the residence of Prateek Jain, the head of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), where Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials were conducting a raid.
The ED raids, in connection with a money laundering case, included I-PAC’s office in Salt Lake, Jain's residence at Loudon Street, and the office of a trader in Posta, Burrabazar.
🚨 BIG! ED officials conducted a raid at the IPAC office in Salt Lake.
— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) January 8, 2026
Following the action, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee visited the residence of Pratik Jain, director of IPAC. pic.twitter.com/o0cLQ2FYhJ
Visuals from the scene show the furious CM lashing out at reporters in her attempt to push past the crowd and get to Jain, whom she has called the Trinamool Congress's (TMC) IT chief.
She later told the crowd that the raids were the work of the "nasty, naughty Home Minister" Amit Shah who was "taking away all my party documents". CM Banerjee also added that she had not known about the raid, and that she had tried contacting Jain when she heard about them—only to learn that the ED had confiscated his phone.
What has unfolded is deliberate and politically motivated. This is yet another attempt by the BJP to capture Bengal through unethical means.
— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 8, 2026
Unable to fight democratically, the BJP is now using the ED as a weapon, trying to forcibly seize party documents, internal strategies,… pic.twitter.com/3oYIY5GiAl
The party has also alleged that the raids were part of a "larger conspiracy" orchestrated with the help of the ED ahead of the elections in the state.
"On one side, they are deleting the names of all the voters by carrying out the SIR in West Bengal ... Because of the elections, they are collecting all the information about my party," she claimed.
"What will be the result if I raid the BJP party office?" she questioned.
The ED raids are reportedly part of a money laundering probe into a coal pilferage scam worth crores of rupees. Jain has allegedly been included in the scope of the case due to “specific” evidence of his connection to certain hawala transactions and cash deals, a PTI report said, citing officials.
The ED has declared that the raids had "no political motive", and were only connected to a November 2020 FIR filed by the CBI, which first alleged a major scam related to the Eastern Coalfields mines in West Bengal's Kunustoria and Kajora areas.
Still, CM Banerjee claimed that she had "brought back" the "party's documents and hard disks" containing details of the party's candidates for the Assembly polls—which she alleged was the focus of the raids.
The I-PAC is yet to issue an official response to the ED raids.
With inputs from Prema Rajaram
