Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court, on Wednesday, disposed of an application by the Trinamool Congress against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after the latter submitted that it seized no documents from the i-PAC office or the company’s director Pratik Jain’s residence during raids carried out on January 8.
Additional solicitor general of India S V Raju, appearing for the ED, told the Court during the day that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee — and not the ED — had seized documents and electronic devices during the raids, as reported by The Telegraph Online.
“The records, if any, were seized by Mamata Banerjee. Therefore, this prayer for returning the assets which are seized is not maintainable unless Mamata Banerjee is made a party,” ASG Raju told the court of Justice Suvra Ghosh.
“That is our case. Mamata Banerjee physically seized all the records and the digital devices from the premises. She has taken possession of them illegally and committed an offence,” the ASG said.
“Unless Mamata Banerjee is made a party who is in illegal possession of these articles, these prayers and this writ petition is not maintainable. In the absence of Mamata Banerjee being made a party and the absence of the DG of police and the commissioner who have abated the offence, these prayers cannot be granted because no record has been seized by the ED. All records have been seized illegally by Mamata Banerjee and her cohorts,” Raju added.
The Trinamool Congress had moved the Court, praying for protection of the “data” seized by the ED during the raids.
“We are not a party before the Supreme Court. There was a search, our privacy may be maintained. We live in a constitutional democracy. We want our political data to be saved. There is a right to privacy. Political ideology is protected,” senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy appea
ring on behalf of the Trinamool said in her argument.
“We only request that our political data be protected and not released in the media and not used in political fashion,” she added.
The ED had carried out raids at multiple locations in Delhi and Kolkata in connection with a coal-smuggling case. In Kolkata, the places raided were the Loudon Street residence of Jain and the I-PAC office in Salt Lake Sector-V Kolkata.
Hours after the raids started, Mamata was seen carrying a green file and electronic devices after emerging from Jain’s residence.
Later on she went to the I-PAC office and spent close to 45 minutes, during which stacks of files, the contents of which are unknown, were loaded into her vehicle allegedly by her security personnel.
“What was the sensitive data seized? Nothing. Petition is to be rejected on the grounds of the vice of vagueness,” Raju argued in court during the day.
The ED had moved the Calcutta High Court and later the Supreme Court against Mamata, the state director general of police Rajeev Kumar and Kolkata Police chief Manoj Verma.
In two petitions filed before the Supreme Court on Monday, the ED stated, that “protectors of law became party to a serious cognisable offence” as they “intimidated and threatened ED officers and snatched files and electronic evidence containing incriminating material,” and sought direction from the apex court in filing FIR against Mamata and the two top cops from the state and the city.
After hearing both sides, Justice Ghosh recorded: “Only prayer of the petitioner is for preservation of the political, confidential data and protection of the same from being circulated and divulged. The learned counsel (for the central agency) submitted on instruction nothing whatsoever was seized from the premises. Copies of panchnamas drawn up at alleged places of search and seizure demonstrate that nothing was seized from either office of I-PAC or the director (of I-PAC). In view of the submission, nothing remains, the application was disposed of.”
Hearing on the plea filed by the ED before the Calcutta High Court as the Special Leave Petition filed by the agency before the Apex court is pending.
The Supreme Court is likely to hear ED’s plea on Thursday.