Why ED is on the backfoot after raiding I-PAC in Kolkata |
There are reasons why the Enforcement Directorate (ED) finds itself between a rock and a hard place after its ill-advised raids on the Kolkata premises of political consultancy firm I-PAC.
The Central agency has tried very hard to plead that the raids this week had nothing to do with the Assembly elections in the state in May, though the consultancy has been working for the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC); that the raids were evidence-based and not targeted at any political party (read TMC).
It also told Calcutta High Court that it was merely acting on an FIR filed by the CBI in a coal-pilferage case in 2020. Agency sources were quoted in local media as saying that proceeds from the crime were paid to I-PAC and part of the money was used in the Goa Assembly election in 2022. In which case, the income tax department would have been the right choice as a Central agency to inquire into the sources of funds to the TMC and I-PAC. However, with apparently no notice from the I-T department pending, the ED was roped in to inquire into alleged payments to I-PAC by TMC.
Even if the ED manages to prove that TMC received the proceeds of coal pilferage and paid part of it to I-PAC for use in the Goa Assembly election, how will it prove that I-PAC........