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Mamata Banerjee's protest rally today after dramatic showdown with ED, ‘naughty HM’ jab over I-PAC raid
Mamata Banerjee will reportedly carry out the protest rally from Jadavpur 8B bus stand to Hazra crossing, and has urged people to join in.
A day after a dramatic standoff with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during its raids on political consultancy firm I-PAC’s office and residence in Kolkata, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will lead a protest rally on Friday.
The TMC supremo had announced the rally against the central probe agency's searches, which she claimed were an attempt to “loot” her party's documents.
Mamata Banerjee will reportedly carry out the protest rally from Jadavpur 8B bus stand to Hazra crossing, and has urged people to take part in the over 5-km long rally.
Banerjee referred to Pratik Jain as in-charge of her party Trinamool Congress's (TMC) IT cell. She said that the ED raids were part of “political vendetta” and the ED used them to feed data, poll strategies and information into its system.
ED vs Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata
A dramatic chain of events unfolded in Kolkata on Thursday as CM Banerjee reached the residence of I-PAC chief Pratik Jain when ED was carrying out searches there.
Both the ED and Mamata Banerjee presented conflicting accounts of what happened. While the probe agency accused the chief minister of storming into the residence and taking away key evidence, the TMC supremo said that the party's important documents - hard disk, financial papers and political papers, were taken away by the ED.
Banerjee defended her move to intervene during the ongoing raids on Thursday, saying: “If they attack us over SIR, make out a false case against me or try to steal our documents, should I not try to resist such attempts?”
A furious Mamata at I-PAC chief's office
Visuals from Thursday afternoon showed Mamata Banerjee drifting past cameras, media and others surrounding her as she turned up at the office of Pratik Jain, where the ED was carrying out raids.
The searches were part of a money laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam, news agency PTI said in a report.
“They have raided the residence of our IT chief. They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which has details about our candidates for the assembly polls. I have brought those back,” a furious Mamata Banerjee was quoted as saying by PTI.
"They (ED) have stolen everything, all data, SIR list," she said later in the day, adding that such searches always take place right before elections. Assembly polls in West Bengal are likely to take place in a few months.
Also Read: Who is I-PAC chief Pratik Jain, IIT-B alumnus and Mamata's poll strategist under ED scanner
Frantic runs with files, Mamata's ‘naughty HM’ jibe
Mamata Banerjee trained guns at the government on Thursday, calling the ED searches against Pratik Jain and I-PAC an attempt to “steal” the Trinamool Congress's data before assembly elections in Bengal.
She even termed Union home minister Amit Shah “naughty”, accusing him of misusing agencies to intimidate other parties. “This is not law enforcement. Is this how the nastiest and naughty home minister functions, who cannot protect the country and is sending agencies to harass before elections?” she said after visiting Pratik Jain's residence.
She then urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “control” his Home Minister, and urged him to defeat the TMC “in a democratic way”.
“You are using agencies to loot our papers, our strategy, our voters, our data, our Bengal... By doing all this, the number of seats you were getting will be reduced to zero...,” Mamata was heard saying in her remarks to reporters.
Visuals from local news channels also showed some people frantically running with files as media flooded them with questions amid chaos over Mamata Banerjee's visit to Pratik Jain's residence.
Mamata Banerjee was also seen holding some documents in a green file cover as she addressed the media, alleging the ED tried to take away sensitive organisational data during the searches.
