The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday conducted searches at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its chief Pratik Jain in West Bengal’s Kolkata. The raids were reportedly carried out as part of a money laundering probe into an alleged multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam.
When @BJP4India knows it will lose Bengal, it unleashes ED.
This is @AmitShah‘s politics: fear, force, and files.
His desperation is exposed.
If you have guts, come to the people.
FIGHT US POLITICALLY!Not through central agencies acting as your puppets.
Bengal is not… https://t.co/KRGFm42qcC
— All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) January 8, 2026
A total of 10 premises were searched, including I-PAC’s office in Salt Lake and Jain’s house on Loudon Street. Among these 10 locations, four are in Delhi. The raids started at around 7 am in the presence of central paramilitary teams.
Oh, the distraught.
Oh, the fear.
Oh, the worry.When the ED raided the I-PAC office and the residence of its chief Pratik Jain, what followed raised far more disturbing questions.
A sitting Chief Minister (Mamata Banerjee) rushing to the spot, looking clueless and… pic.twitter.com/imqGymj9uW
— BJP (@BJP4India) January 8, 2026
Who Is Pratik Jain?
Jain is the co-founder and a director of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC). He is an IIT-Bombay alumnus. He is known for poll data analysis and forming strategies. He is also the IT cell head of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC).
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has criticized the Enforcement Directorate’s raid at IPAC Director Pratik Jain’s residence in Kolkata, stating it’s a “preplanned political strategy”. ED is investigating a coal scam case and conducting raids at two IPAC offices and… pic.twitter.com/y87A9CEK94
— Piyali Mitra (@Plchakraborty) January 8, 2026
What Is The Case?
The ED case stems from a November 2020 FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which alleged a multi-crore rupee coal pilferage scam related to Eastern Coalfields mines in West Bengal’s Kunustoria and Kajora areas in and around Asansol, reported news agency PTI. Local coal operator Anup Majhi, alias Lala, is the prime suspect in the case.
VIDEO | Kolkata: Communist Party of India (Marxist) West Bengal State secretary Mohammad Salim says, “Today, we saw how Mamata Banerjee went to Pratik Jain’s residence during the raid. Later, she visited the office in Sector V, which is the office of a private company… In the… pic.twitter.com/7UrWAZYmlP
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) January 8, 2026
Earlier, the ED also questioned TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamata Banerjee, and claimed that he was a beneficiary of the funds obtained from the illegal coal trade.
Mamata Banerjee’s Reaction:
The West Bengal CM dramatically turned up at Jain’s residence amid an ED raid. She alleged that the central agency was attempting to seize the TMC’s internal documents, hard disks and sensitive data linked to its election strategy.
She said the raid at the residence and offices of Jain, “the in-charge of my IT cell”, was politically motivated and unconstitutional.
“They have raided the residence and offices of our in-charge of IT cell. They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which have details about our party candidates for the Assembly polls. I have brought those back,” Banerjee told reporters.
She accused the ED officials of walking away with hard disks, mobile phones, laptops, candidate lists and internal strategy documents of the ruling party.
“Is it the duty of the ED to collect political party data?” she asked.
