ED vs TMC drama now at Amit Shah's doorstep; Mahua Moitra, other MPs detained amid protest outside his office

The ongoing face-off between the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) escalated on Friday as the political flashpoint reached the doorstep of Union home minister Amit Shah, a day after party supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's dramatic visit to the residence I-PAC head and political consultancy group's office amid ED raids.

Eight AITC MPs, who were later detained, were seen staged a dharna outside Shah's office in Delhi on Friday morning, protesting the ED raids conducted at the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) office in Kolkata a day earlier.

Holding placards and raising slogans, the MPs accused the Centre of misusing central agencies to target opposition parties ahead of elections.

Those leading the protest included Mahua Moitra, Derek O'Brien, Satabdi Roy, Bapi Haldar, Saket Gokhale, Pratima Mondal, Kirti Azad and Dr Sharmila Sarkar. Visuals from the site showed MPs holding placards that read, "Bengal rejects Modi-Shah's dirty politics," as they sought to highlight what the party called political vendetta against the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.

I-PAC which does political consultancy for TMC and also looks after its IT and media cell.

The standoff was triggered by ED raids at I-PAC chief Pratik Jain's residence and group's office in Kolkata on Thursday, during which Mamata Banerjee “rushed” to the search locations alleging that the central agency was “looting” sensitive TMC documents.

Dramatic visuals of a charged Mamata Banerjee dodging media persons and holding documents she said she took back flooded social media, while the ED later said that the search proceedings were peaceful till the chief minister came with a large number of police personnel.

In her attack at the BJP-led central government, under which ED functions, Mamata Banerjee described the search as an act of “political vendetta”, and termed Union home minister Amit Shah as “naughty”, accusing him of misusing constitutional agencies to intimidate opposition parties.

“This is not law enforcement. Is this how the nastiest and naughty home minister functions, who cannot protect the country and is sending agencies to harass before elections?” she said after visiting the residence of Pratik Jain.

ED said the raids were linked to people who generated proceeds of coal smuggling.