New Delhi / Kolkata: In a significant development just days ahead of the Bengal Assembly polls, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Vinesh Chandel, director of political consultancy firm I-PAC, in a money laundering probe linked to alleged illegal coal mining and transportation in Bengal.
I-PAC, which works as a political strategist for the Trinamool Congress, has once again become the focal point amid heightened political tension in the poll-bound state.
Earlier, on January 8, a high-profile raid on the office of I-PAC and its director, Pratik Jain, triggered a legal confrontation with the West Bengal government. The ED alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee obstructed its searches and tampered with evidence, while the TMC chairperson countered that the agency was attempting to seize her party’s sensitive election-strategy documents ahead of the Assembly polls.
Banerjee also alleged that the ED’s actions were aimed at targeting I-PAC, which works for the TMC, in an attempt to access and misuse the party’s data.
The TMC supremo had said: ED raided my IT sector (cell) office and searched the residence of the person in charge of my IT sector (cell). They were confiscating my party’s documents and hard disks, which had details about our party candidates for the Assembly polls. I have brought those back.”
Meanwhile, the arrest, on Monday, comes more than a week after the agency launched fresh raids on I-PAC on April 2, including Chandel’s residence, and the premises of another director, Rishi Raj Singh and former communications in-charge of Aam Aadmi Party, Vijay Nair.
Officials reportedly said that Chandel was taken into custody from Delhi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA and will be produced before a court on Tuesday.
ED, reportedly, has alleged that around Rs 20 crore proceeds of crime generated in the West Bengal coal mining racket were transferred through hawala channels to I-PAC.
ED’s money laundering probe is based on a Central Bureau of Investigation’s FIR of 2020 on allegations that coal was illegally mined at Eastern Coalfields Ltd‘s mines in Kunustoria and Kajora in West Bengal.
The agency had earlier questioned TMC national general secretary and MP Abhishek Banerjee, alleging he was a beneficiary of funds from the illegal mining.
I-PAC, in a statement in January, claimed that its role is limited to transparent, professional political consulting, free of influence from political ideology.
“We believe this [the raids] raises serious concerns and sets an unsettling precedent. Regardless, we have extended full cooperation... engaging with the process in complete accordance and respect for the law,” the statement added.
Reacting to the development on X, Abhishek Banerjee said: “The arrest of Vinesh Chandel, co-founder of I-PAC, barely 10 days before the Bengal elections, is not just alarming- It shakes the very idea of a level playing field.
At a time when WB should be moving toward free and fair elections, this kind of action sends a chilling message: If you work with the opposition, you could be next. That’s not democracy- that’s intimidation!
What makes it even harder to ignore is the double standard. Those facing serious corruption allegations seem to find protection the moment they switch sides, while others are swiftly targeted at politically convenient moments. People are not blind to this anymore.
When institutions meant to protect democracy start feeling like tools of pressure, trust begins to erode. On one side, the Election Commission. On the other, agencies like the ED, NIA, CBI stepping in at the most sensitive time. It creates an atmosphere of fear, not fairness.
India has always taken pride in its democracy- loud, messy but free. But today, many are beginning to ask: are we still that country?
This is bigger than one arrest. It is about whether our institutions remain independent and whether every citizen, no matter their political belief, can participate without fear.
Because once fear replaces freedom, democracy becomes just a word.
To Amit Shah and the BJP’s power structure- Be in Bengal on the 4th and 5th of May. Come with Gyanesh Kumar and every agency you deploy. Bengal will not be bullied, will not be silenced and will not bow. This is a land that answers pressure with resistance and it will show you exactly what that means!”