Kolkata Ed Raids: ‘Can’t shut our eyes to realities’: SC slams Mamata’s ‘interference’ in I-PAC raid case | India News
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her alleged interference during the Enforcement Directorate probe at the I-PAC director’s residence in Kolkata.The top court described the socio-political climate in the poll-bound state as an “extraordinary situation”, while citing the Chief Minister’s entry into the premises mid-campaign and the removal of files linked to the I-PAC, said to be overseeing the TMC’s election campaign.The court called out the situation, observing that such action by a sitting chief minister threatened democracy.“This is not a dispute between the state and the union. We never thought that a day would come in this country when a sitting CM would visit the office where there is an investigating agency. A state’s chief minister cannot go into an inquiry, endanger democracy and then say ‘don’t make it a dispute between the state and the union’. This is an act committed by a person who could become the chief minister putting the entire democracy at risk,” the court said, according to news agency ANI.A bench of Justices PK Mishra and NV Anjaria told the lawyers arguing for the West Bengal administration, which includes Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other senior officials, they can argue on abstract legal principles but the court cannot turn a blind eye to the ground reality going on in the state.“This is an extraordinary situation. Before the other bench (referring to the siege in the SIR case) we have seen that several judicial officers have been held hostage. We cannot close our eyes to the reality. You can argue abstract legal principles, but we cannot lose sight of the real situation happening in the state,” the court observed.The ED operation became a political flashpoint when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee jumped into the ongoing probe and allegedly interfered in the process by removing key evidence.The ED conducted searches at multiple locations, including Kolkata and Delhi, as part of its probe into alleged financial irregularities involving I-PAC.The agency maintained that the move was part of a routine investigation and not politically motivated, saying the search was evidence-based and did not target any political institution, no party office was searched and it was not linked to any election.
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Mamata’s dramatic intervention came when she reached the residence of I-PAC co-founder Pratik Jain during the ED raid.According to the agency, he, along with assistants and police personnel, “forcibly removed physical documents and electronic evidence” and later went to the i-Pac office in Salt Lake, where similar activities were alleged.Scenes of Mamata being carried, known as the “green file”, have sparked nationwide controversy.
