New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its order on a plea by the Enforcement Directorate arising from its search at the I-PAC office in Kolkata, and the alleged obstruction it ran into there.
The bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N V Anjaria kept the order limited to one question: whether the matter should go to the CBI or be left to the new state government to decide.
The ED's writ petition seeks an FIR and an investigation against former chief minister Mamata Banerjee and police officers. The other respondents are the then Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar, the then Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma and the then Deputy Commissioner (South Kolkata) Priyabatra Roy.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Banerjee, argued that she is no longer chief minister and the state is now run by another party, which can refer the matter to the CBI on its own. He asked why the court needed to pass an order at all, and said there would be no allegation of political motive if the state acted.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, for the ED, opposed leaving it to the state. He argued that a state referral would invite allegations of mala fide, that senior police officers arraigned as accused could influence the probe, and that with cross-cases involved, a single agency should examine both sides.
The case dates to searches on January 8 at the I-PAC office and the residence of co-founder Pratik Jain, in a money laundering probe linked to an alleged coal scam. The ED alleges that Banerjee arrived with senior party leaders and police personnel while the search was on, confronted its officers, and took away certain files. Banerjee has denied the allegations and said she went to retrieve confidential and proprietary Trinamool Congress data tied to the party's electoral strategy.
On January 15, the Supreme Court stayed the FIRs registered by West Bengal Police against ED officials over the searches and ordered that CCTV footage and other digital records be preserved.