SC Adjourns ED Plea on I-PAC Raids; Feb 10 Hearing Set

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned to February 10 the hearing on a plea moved by the ED alleging obstruction by the West Bengal government, including by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in its search operation at the I-PAC office and the premises of its director Pratik Jain in connection with an alleged coal pilferage scam. A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and NV Anjaria deferred the matter after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate (ED), submitted that the state government has filed affidavits in the matter and sought time. The top court on January 15 said the West Bengal chief minister's alleged "obstruction" in ED's probe is "very serious" and agreed to examine if a state's law-enforcing agencies can interfere with any central agency's probe into any serious offence as it stayed FIRs against the agency's officials who raided political consultancy I-PAC on January 8. The top court, while staying the FIRs filed in West Bengal against ED officials, also directed the state police to protect the CCTV footage of the raids. It had issued notices to Banerjee, the West Bengal government, DGP Rajeev Kumar and top cops on the ED's petitions seeking a CBI probe against them for allegedly obstructing raids at I-PAC premises. The ED has also alleged that Banerjee entered the raid sites and took away "key" evidence, including physical documents and electronic devices, from the premises of I-PAC and obstructed and interfered with the investigation in the case. The ED has further claimed in its plea that the chief minister's presence at the search site and the alleged removal of documents had an intimidating effect on officers and seriously compromised the federal probe agency's ability to discharge its statutory functions independently. The ED's plea in the apex court follows events from January 8.

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