New Delhi, February 17: The Supreme Court will hear the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) petition on Wednesday. The petition accuses the West Bengal government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of intervening during raids at the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) office in Kolkata and the residence of its co-founder, Pratik Jain.
According to the cause list published on the Supreme Court’s website, the case is scheduled for February 18 before Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and K.V. Vishwanathan.
Last week, the hearing was postponed due to the ill health of senior advocate Kapil Sibal. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the ED, informed the court that Sibal would be unavailable. He stated, “I cannot oppose on this basis. If it can be kept for February 18.” Subsequently, the bench adjourned the matter to February 18.
The ED has requested the Supreme Court to direct the registration of an FIR against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state’s Director General of Police (DGP), and the Kolkata Police Commissioner. The agency alleges that its statutory duties were obstructed during the search operation.
In her response affidavit, Mamata Banerjee denied all allegations. She stated that she visited Pratik Jain’s residence on Loudon Street and the IPAC office in Bidhannagar on January 8, 2026, after receiving information that sensitive political data of the Trinamool Congress was being accessed during the search.
The affidavit claims that this data was “deeply connected” to the upcoming assembly election strategy. According to Banerjee, she politely requested the ED officials to allow her to take the party’s data and related equipment/files, to which the officials did not object. After retrieving the data, she left to avoid obstructing the search process.
The affidavit also asserts that the ED’s panchnama report indicates that the search was conducted “peacefully and in an orderly manner.”
The Chief Minister further argued that neither the Trinamool Congress nor its officials are accused in the alleged coal scam, thus the ED has no right to claim the party’s confidential data.
In the response affidavit, the ED is accused of acting with malicious intent, as the raids occurred just before the 2026 West Bengal assembly elections, at a time when IPAC had “important documents,” including a list of potential candidates.
The affidavit also alleges violations of statutory safeguards under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and states that the ED failed to present any audio or video recordings of the search, raising questions about the transparency of the operation.
Earlier, on January 15, the Supreme Court had stayed the FIR filed by the West Bengal police against ED officials related to the search and directed the preservation of CCTV footage and other digital records from the search site and surrounding areas.
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