Calcutta, 14 January. A hearing was held in the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday on the controversy related to the raid conducted at the office of political consulting firm I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) and the residence of its director Prateek Jain. The High Court, along with hearing separate petitions filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC), also disposed of them.
In its petition, the party led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had sought protection of confidential political data. During the hearing of the petition, the court said that ED has informed that it has not seized anything from the office and house of I-PAC director Prateek Jain during the raid last week (January 8).
TMC had filed a petition in the court seeking an order for protection of personal and political data seized during the raids conducted by ED on these two premises on January 8. Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the ED, told the court that the agency has not seized anything from these two premises.
Nothing left to consider further: High Court
Disposing of TMC’s petition, Justice Suvra Ghosh remarked that in view of the arguments presented by the ED and the Government of India, there is nothing left to merit further consideration in this petition filed by the ruling party in West Bengal.
The petition filed by ED is also postponed
Justice Ghosh also adjourned the petition filed by the ED, which had accused Mamata Banerjee of obstructing the investigation on January 8, when during the raid, CM Mamata Banerjee had gone to the office of a political consultancy firm in Salt Lake and the residence of the firm’s director on Loudon Street in South Kolkata.
The high court adjourned the central agency’s plea on the ground that the ED has filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court, containing ‘almost identical prayers to the present application’.
whatever took possession, She took the CM along: SV Raju
SV Raju said that whatever the central agency had taken into its possession, it was taken to CM Mamata Banerjee. Earlier, ED told the High Court that the petitions filed in connection with the searches conducted at the house and office of I-PAC director Prateek Jain last week should be postponed. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress lawyer Maneka Guruswamy said that the party only wants the security of its data. Earlier, the hearing of this case could not be held on the scheduled date (January 9) because a huge crowd had gathered in the court premises.
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