'Why did you come like a thief': Didi walks 6 km to protest 'theft, trespass' by ED; lodges 2 FIRs against agency officials

KOLKATA: CM Mamata Banerjee walked around 6km with thousands of Trinamool supporters on Friday afternoon, less than 10 hours after lodging two FIRs against "unidentified" Enforcement Directorate officials, accusing them of theft, criminal trespass, criminal intimidation and tampering with electronic data.

The FIRs, possibly Bengal's first lodged by a chief minister, follow Thursday's search by ED at the Salt Lake office of political consultancy I-PAC, which works for TMC, and the Loudon Street home of its director Pratik Jain in connection with a coal scam. Banerjee went to Jain's home while the search was on and took away a green folder, a hard disk and phone. She later reached the I-PAC office.




While addressing a rally at the end of the two-hour march from the Jadavpur 8B bus stand to the Hazra crossing, Banerjee said, "What I did was in the capacity of Trinamool chairperson. I did nothing wrong. If you come to kill me, I have every right to defend myself. Why did you come like a thief... You've been doing it since 6 o'clock. I went at 11.30 (Jain's home). You stole everything for five hours. You came to steal information - SIR data, voter information, BLA names, and phone numbers."

Banerjee emailed a complaint against ED to Shakespeare Sarani police station on Thursday night, which led to the registration of the first FIR on Friday morning. The FIR was drawn up under BNS sections 303 (theft), 332 (criminal trespass) and 3 (5) (criminal intimidation), along with section 66 of IT Act (tampering of electronic data). Police have collected CCTV footage from Jain's home to probe the complaint. The second FIR was lodged with Electronic Complex police station in Sector V.

We are still in a nascent stage of the investigation and can’t comment. We are looking into all available evidence and are speaking to witnesses,” said Badana Varun Chandra Sekhar, joint commissioner, headquarters, Bidhannagar City Police. The CM had drafted both complaints while sitting outside the I-PAC office at the Godrej Waterside building in Sector V on Thursday.



She pointed out while addressing the rally that I-PAC had once worked with BJP, too. “When Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, I-PAC had worked for them. Back then, Prashant Kishor was there (with I-PAC). Now, he is no longer there. Pratik oversees it. They have worked for Chandrababu Naidu, Jagan Reddy and Nitish Kumar, too. They handle our IT cell. We have just one such consultancy firm. They (BJP) have so many, yet they have declared a war.”

Banerjee alleged that Union home minister Amit Shah and Bengal BJP neta Suvendu Adhikari have links with the coal scam. “They talk about coal money, but who took it? It went to Amit Shah through the traitor. He has become Shah’s adopted son. Along with him is BJP’s Jagannath. The money reaches Suvendu Adhikari via Jagannath and then goes to Amit Shah through Adhikari… You are lucky I have not released any pen drives yet. If you cross limits, I will expose you... If I speak, there will be uproar worldwide,” she said.



Adhikari issued a statement on Friday, saying, “I have served a Legal Notice demanding that she provide all purported evidence in 72 hours. If she fails to do so, I will pursue appropriate Civil and Criminal actions for Defamation.”

The CM said, “Rioters are in govt — what else can you expect? Their own home minister went missing. Gujarat’s ex-home minister Haren Pandya was murdered... Have you forgotten Godhra, Unnao, Delhi, or Pulwama? Are infiltrators only in Bengal? Who controls borders? BSF. Under which ministry? Centre. Earlier, BSF jurisdiction was 5km (from international border). Now it is 50 km. (The change was made) to intimidate villagers. Who is responsible for coal? CISF.” TMC workers and others lined up along rally route. Kids were seen offering flowers.