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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday carried out extensive searches at multiple locations linked to Pratik Jain, co-founder and director of political consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), in connection with a money-laundering investigation linked to the alleged coal smuggling case in West Bengal.
ED teams began raids around 7 am at at least 10 locations, including I-PAC’s office in Salt Lake, Jain’s residence on Loudon Street in central Kolkata, and several other premises in West Bengal and Delhi. The searches were conducted with the assistance of central paramilitary forces.
I-PAC is known for providing political consultancy services to several parties and is currently associated with West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), including support for its IT and media operations. The searches triggered sharp political reactions, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleging that the central agency was attempting to seize sensitive party-related material.
Pratik Jain, an engineer-turned-political strategist, co-founded I-PAC in 2015 along with Vinesh Chandel and Rishi Raj Singh. An alumnus of IIT Bombay, where he studied metallurgical engineering and materials science, Jain briefly worked as an intern with Axis Mutual Fund before joining Deloitte as an analyst in 2012. He later became a founding member of Citizens for Accountable Governance, a non-profit initiative that eventually evolved into I-PAC.
I-PAC describes itself as a platform enabling students and young professionals to contribute meaningfully to politics and governance without formally joining political parties. Jain also heads the Trinamool Congress’s IT cell, a role confirmed earlier by Mamata Banerjee.
The central agency claims to have “specific evidence” against Jain, alleging links to hawala transactions and cash dealings associated with the coal smuggling probe. The agency, however, has not publicly detailed the nature of the evidence against him.
During the searches, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited Jain’s residence and launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing it of misusing central investigative agencies to target regional parties. “They steal and then they lie. If you cannot fight us politically, why come to Bengal? Defeat us democratically,” Banerjee said. “You are using agencies to loot our papers, our strategy, our voters, our data, our Bengal. By doing this, the seats you are getting will go down to zero. I request the Prime Minister to control the Home Minister,” she added.
Banerjee also alleged that ED officials attempted to confiscate internal party documents and hard disks containing sensitive electoral information. “They have raided the residence of our IT chief and tried to seize party documents and hard disks with details of our candidates for the Assembly elections. I have brought those back,” she said.
The ED, however, firmly rejected the Chief Minister’s allegations. In a statement, the agency said the searches were “evidence-based” and unrelated to politics or elections. “Searches are being conducted at 10 places, six in West Bengal and four in Delhi, in connection with illegal coal smuggling. The probe covers premises linked to the generation of cash and hawala transfers,” the statement said. “No political party office has been searched. The action is not linked to any elections and is part of a routine crackdown on money laundering,” the ED added.
The raids come amid heightened political tensions in West Bengal and months ahead of the much-anticipated 2026 Assembly Elections, with the Trinamool Congress repeatedly accusing central agencies of targeting its leaders and affiliates, an allegation consistently denied by the BJP and investigating authorities.
