ED raids I-PAC office in Kolkata ahead of 2026 Bengal polls, CM Mamata Banerjee alleges data loot

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, on Thursday alleged Enforcement Directorate have accessed all party data, candidate’s lists, hard drives, financial data, laptops, election strategies and Bengal SIR related documents, ahead of the 2026 polls during marathon raids the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the office of vote-strategy agency Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) at Salt Lake in the eastern outskirts of Kolkata and the residence of I-PAC's co-founder, Pratik Jain at Loudon Street in central Kolkata.

She claimed that I-PAC was working for her party officially and there were official agreements.

Also read: ED searches I-PAC office, director Pratik Jain in money laundering probe


Banerjee lashed out at ED officials and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over marathon raids conducted urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to control his Union Home Minister Amit Shah and said all limits have been crossed. “If Amit Shah has to win Bengal, you fight the election and come to power,” Banerjee challenged.

After coming out of I-PAC's Salt Lake Office, Banerjee, accusing the agency of data loot, said, “The ED started the operations at 6AM. They have accessed all party data, laptops, election strategies and Bengal SIR related documents, with which we were assisting people. All data have been accessed by their Forensic team. It is a crime. It is our party’s IT office. I-PAC is AITC’s authorized team, which assists in polls”

Banerjee had entered the I-PAC office and claimed that after “looting all the data, the tables are left empty.” However, she said the ED team said that they have not taken any data.

“Ahead of the polls, it will be difficult if all data and information is taken away by the agency. They have accessed all data—candidate lists, SIR related and all other data. We are a registered political party. We pay Income Tax and an audit is also done. How will we prepare ahead of the polls,” Banerjee said. “If I raid BJP’s party and IT office, what will happen? I am still tolerating it. They have crossed all limits.”

“As per agreement, the I-PAC was working on behalf of us officially. Is it not a crime?” Banerjee said and alleged the agency raid as “murder of democracy and right to work”.

“Unless I settle, I will wait here till Pratik Jain comes here and then we will decide on our course of action,” Banerjee said.

Challenging BJP to fight politically or they will be reduced to zero in Bengal, Banerjee said “They have looted our information and data related to poll strategy from our office. Why are you deploying agencies to looti our data, poll strategies and election research documents? You are robbing our documents. You will turn to zero.”

“It started at 6am. Their forensic team has come and transferred data. They have taken our financial papers and political information; bank account details have taken it,” Banerjee added..

“You have taken all the hard disk and data. FIRs will be lodged against the Forensic. They want to forcefully bulldoze us but Bengal will not bow down their heads to BJP. Everyone will walk together against BJP which is a dangerous country,” Banerjee said.

Banerjee said as part of the daily interaction, she gave a call to Pratik Jain but later was not taking calls and then she came to know that his phone was confiscated by the agencies. Following this, Banerjee rushed to Jain’s house, where raids were going on. Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Verma also went to his residence.

According to sources in the central investigating agency, a special team from Delhi arrived for the operations. The ED team visited the London Street residence of I-PAC's chief Pratik Jain, where searches are also underway. According to ED sources, the raid is connected to an old case registered in Delhi concerning coal smuggling. I-PAC's name has surfaced in connection with several transactions in that case, according to ED sources.

In this connection, another ED team visited the residence of a businessman in Posta of Burrabazar area in north Kolkata. The ED launched the operation with the assistance of central forces.

Reacting to the Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said that Mamata Banerjee was trying to directly interfere in the operations of a constitutional body.