Who is I-PAC chief Pratik Jain, IIT-B alumnus and Mamata's poll strategist under ED scanner

Pratik Jain, co-founder and director of leading political consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee, or I-PAC, has found himself in the middle of a money laundering probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which conducted raids at not just I-PAC's office but also Jain's residence in West Bengal's Kolkata.

Apart from I-PAC's office in Salt Lake and Jain's house on Loudon Street in Kolkata, official sources told news agency PTI that eight other locations were raided by the ED officials in presence of f central paramilitary teams since 7 am on Thursday.

I-PAC, which does political consultancy for West Bengal's ruling party Trinamool Congress, also looks after its IT and media cell. The raids prompted sharp replies from chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who alleged that ED officials tried to seize internal and sensitive documents and also hard disks of her party during the raids.

Jain did his engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) in metallurgical engineering and materials science, during which, he interned at Axis mutual fund.

After his engineering, in 2012, Jain worked as an analyst at Deloitte before becoming a founding member of ‘Citizens for Accountable Governance’, a “not-for-profit organization with a vision to further strengthen accountable governance in India”, according to its LinkedIn, which eventually culminated into I-PAC.

Jain also heads the IT cell of West Bengal's ruling party Trinamool Congress, as confirmed by Mamata Banerjee.

I-PAC describes itself as a “platform of choice for students and young professionals to participate in and make meaningful contribution to political affairs and governance of the country, without necessarily being part of a political party”.

Pratik Jain's house and office was raided by the Enforcement Directorate as the probe agency claimed there is “specific” evidence against him in connection with a “coal scam case” in West Bengal and some hawala transactions and cash deals related to it, news agency PTI reported citing sources.

During the raids, West Bengal chief minister Banerjee reached Jain's home and later accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of using central probe agencies to go after regional parties.

“Karte loot bolte jhooth. If you (BJP) cannot fight with us, then why are you coming to Bengal? Defeat us in a democratic way. You are using agencies to loot our papers, our strategy, our voters, our data, our Bengal... By doing all this, the number of seats you were getting will be reduced to zero. I am sorry, Mr Prime Minister, please control your Home Minister,” news agency ANI quoted Banerjee as saying.

“They have raided the residence of our IT chief. They are confiscating my party's documents and hard disks, which have details about our candidates for the Assembly polls. I have brought those back,” she also said, as quoted by PTI.

However, ED rejected Banerjee's claims and said that the raids were “evidence-based” and did not target any “political establishment”.

"The search is ongoing at 10 places (6 in West Bengal and 4 in Delhi). The case relates to illegal coal smuggling. The search covers various premises linked to the generation of cash, hawala transfer, etc in that case. No party office has been searched. The search is not linked to any elections and is part of a regular crackdown on money laundering,” ED said in a statement.