West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she will take to the streets in Kolkata on Friday to raise her voice against the raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the I-PAC office, and the residence of its co-founder, Pratik Jain.
“Tomorrow, our Hon’ble Chairperson @MamataOfficial will lead a rally against the BJP’s blatant misuse of central agencies and its assault on democracy,” the Trinamool Congress posted on its official social media handle.
The protests are to begin from Jadavpur 8B Bus Stand and lead towards Hazra More.
On Thursday, the state chief minister had visited the residence of Jain and the office of the political consultancy firm in Kolkata whilst the ED raids were on, and called them “politically motivated to steal party data” that includes the candidate list for the upcoming elections.
“They have stolen everything, all data, SIR list,” Mamata said at an event later.
Also Read: I-PAC raid: ED accuses Mamata of removing evidences
The Trinamool Congress and its leaders including Mahua Moitra and Saket Gokhale also launched scathing attacks on ED, condemning the raids and terming them “political burglary”. The party said the raids on I-PAC reflected the desperation of the BJP.
“When the BJP knows it will lose Bengal, it unleashes ED. This is Amit Shah’s politics: fear, force, and files. His desperation is exposed. If you have guts, come to the people. Fight us politically! Not through central agencies acting as your puppets,” the party posted on its social media.
Moitra, TMC MP from Krishnanahar, also took to her social media, justifying Mamata’s possession of devices and files from the consultancy office whilst the ED raid was on. “ED suddenly wakes up in a 10-year-old case on the eve of elections? Inconceivable after so long that info on any scam will be on I-PAC devices – likely only current TMC political data will be. Faced with this political burglary, [Mamata], as head of party, is fully justified to take possession of devices and files which would otherwise be irretrievably lost if ED allowed to get its hands on contained data,” she said.
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