Kolkata, 09 January (H.S.):

The raid conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on I-PAC, a private political consultancy firm under investigation in a coal smuggling and money laundering case, has heated up West Bengal politics. Amit Malviya, head of the Bharatiya Janata Party's IT cell, posted on social media platform X on Friday, raising serious questions about Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's role.

Amit Malviya stated that a Chief Minister's presence at the site of an active ED raid is a clear violation of constitutional propriety and the limits of executive power. He questioned since when Chief Ministers have started confronting investigative agencies on the streets, when the courts are the appropriate forum for such matters.

In his post, Malviya claimed that videos and reports showed Kolkata Police officers removing documents and files from the I-PAC office and placing them in the Chief Minister's car. He questioned whose documents these were. If they were party documents related to the Trinamool Congress, why was the state police handling them during the ED's operation? Conversely, if they were official documents of the West Bengal government, their presence in a private political consultancy firm's office raises serious questions.

The BJP leader also asked whether I-PAC was working solely for the Trinamool Congress or also for the state government. If the organization was involved in government work, it indicates a complete erosion of the constitutional separation between the party and the government.

Referring to the 2020 West Bengal coal smuggling case, in which senior state police officers and several IPS officers are under investigation, Amit Malviya questioned whether the large deployment of Kolkata Police and Bidhannagar Police during the ED raid was to maintain law and order or an attempt to influence the investigation and protect those under scrutiny—a matter that warrants serious investigation.

He also questioned the presence of the state's police chief, asking whether the police chief is an independent constitutional functionary or has been reduced to the role of a private bodyguard for the ruling party. If the central agencies were acting illegally, why did the government turn the entire episode into a public spectacle instead of pursuing a legal challenge?

At the end of his post, Amit Malviya stated that this entire episode openly blurs the lines between party and state, governance and pressure politics. He questioned whether all of this was done to protect the Constitution or if it was a result of panic to suppress potential evidence before the 2026 assembly elections.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey