New Delhi: The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing on the ED’s petition against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and others for obstructing the search operation at the I-PAC office in Kolkata until March 18. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, representing the Enforcement Directorate (ED), argued before the Supreme Court on Wednesday that the central agency had been “terrorized.”
The petition alleges that the West Bengal government, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, obstructed the search operation at the I-PAC office and its director’s premises in connection with the alleged coal theft scam.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and KV Vishwanathan that a reply would be filed today, after which the bench adjourned the matter.
During a brief hearing on the matter, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra submitted before the bench that the ED should justify its “weaponization.” Luthra said, “They have to explain how an agency can be weaponized like this…”
To this, Raju replied, “No, no agency has been weaponized…it (ED) has been terrorized.”
In January, the Supreme Court had stated that the West Bengal Chief Minister’s alleged “obstruction” of the ED’s investigation was “very serious.” The apex court had agreed to examine whether state law enforcement agencies can interfere with a central agency’s investigation into any serious crime. The court also stayed the FIR against agency officials who raided the political consultancy I-PAC on January 8.
The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by the ED under Article 32 of the Constitution against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and some state police officials.
The ED has sought a CBI investigation against the Bengal Chief Minister, Director General of Police, and Kolkata Police Commissioner, alleging that they obstructed a money laundering investigation, forcibly seized digital devices and documents, and wrongfully imprisoned ED officials during a search operation at the political consultancy firm I-PAC in January.
The 160-page ED petition filed in the Supreme Court states that it reveals a shocking situation in West Bengal, where the law enforcers themselves are involved in serious cognizable crimes that require the registration of an FIR under the Lalita Kumari v. State of Uttar Pradesh (2014) case. The petition states that the petitioners were compelled to approach the Supreme Court due to a very unusual situation.
