The Calcutta High Court disposed of the Trinamool Congress’s plea regarding the Enforcement Directorate’s seizure of confidential political data during the I-PAC raids on Wednesday.
During the hearing, the TMC pressed its pleas seeking court protection for the poll-related data that were allegedly taken by the ED.
The TMC called the ED’s actions an extraordinary sign of bullying, Bar and Bench reported.
The ED told the court that the search was conducted at a different location and questioned how “another party is now coming and claiming that its data was with them”. “This is not how it works,” it said. ED also stated that the petitioner on behalf of the TMC was Subhashish Chakraborty, who was not present at the locations where ED raids took place and does not have adequate knowledge to be a petitioner.
TMC argued that their data needs to be protected as seizure of data by ED amounts to bullying of a political party and their strategy wing, I-PAC, being targeted ahead of assembly elections in West Bengal.
The HC then disposed of the TMC’s pleas after the agency submitted that it seized nothing from I-PAC head Prateek Jain’s home and office on January 8.
Additional Solicitor General SC Raju, who appeared for the central agency, told the bench, “The prayer is for protection of data. The record was seized by Mamata Banerjee. Unless she is made a party, these prayers can't be granted, as no record has been seized by ED, but all records have been seized by Mamata Banerjee and her cohorts.”
The ED also sought an adjournment and informed the court that it had moved the Supreme Court in the matter.
The High Court heard pleas by both the ED and TMC on Wednesday. The ED had sought a CBI probe against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for allegedly obstructing the ongoing money laundering investigation. They also asked that she return the documents and material she allegedly took from the I-PAC premises.
The TMC counsel, Menaka Guruswamy, told the high court that the party was only seeking protection of its data.
- with inputs from Prema Rajaram.