CJI present at event, Mamata slams ‘deliberate attempts’ by agencies to ‘defame’ people after I-PAC raids drama

WEst Bengal chief government minister Mamata Banerjee said that agencies ar deliberately attempting to “ besmirch” the people as she urged Chief justness of bharat Surya Kant to “protect” the country’s Constitution, democracy and judiciary from a “disaster”.The veiled digs at the BJP come after Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at the Salt Lake office of political consultancy firm I-PAC, with Mamata accusing the agency of trying to seize her party’s internal documents.ALSO READ | ‘Can’t have BJP rule India': Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata rally over I-PAC raid What Mamata Banerjee saidSpeaking at the inauguration of the new building of the Circuit Bench in Jalpaiguri of the high court at Calcutta, where the Chief Justice of India and the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court were also present, Banerjee took shots at the Centre amid heated political tensions ahead of the much-anticipated assembly elections in the state this year.Speaking at the event, Mamata said, “My request to the Chief Justice and all the judges. Please see that our Constitution, democracy, safety and security, history, geography and our boundary are protected from disaster. Media shouldn’t engage in a media trial before a case is finalised (court delivers its judgment). This is a trend nowadays to malign the people. There are deliberate attempts by agencies to defame the people.” She added, “Please protect the people. I am not saying this for myself. Save democracy, the judiciary, the country and save the Constitution. We are under your custody. There is no above the judiciary.”Mamata has seemingly joined the “protect democracy” calls repeatedly made by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who has accused the Election Commission and the ruling party of “vote chori”, a charge denied by both the constitutional body and the political party.She also claimed that while the central government had “stopped funding” fast-track courts in West Bengal, her administration had set up 88 such courts, as mentioned in an earlier HT report.“We have already spent more than ₹1,200 crore on courts. Please do not mind (referring to Union law and justice minister Arjun Ram Meghwal among the attendees); though the Centre has stopped the funding, we are continuing the fast-track courts,” she said.Row over I-PAC raidsThe chief minister’s remarks come against the backdrop of an ongoing legal dispute between the ED and the Trinamool Congress-led West Bengal government.The row began after the federal agency carried out searches at ten locations, six in West Bengal and four in Delhi, as part of an alleged money laundering investigation. The locations included the Salt Lake office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the home of its director, Pratik Jain.During the search, Banerjee went to Jain’s residence and took away documents and a laptop, accusing the agency of seizing her party’s internal papers and sensitive data linked to the 2026 assembly elections, including the candidate list.The agency later accused the TMC chief of obstructing its work and removing evidence.