TMC MPs stage protest outside Union Home Ministry office over ED raids against I-PAC

Several Trinamool Congress MPs were detained while staging a protest outside the Home Ministry's office here on Friday against alleged misuse of probe agencies by the Centre.

The Delhi Police evicted the protesters from the spot, lifting them up and dragging the parliamentarians to clear the area.

The protest came a day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) carried out raids at the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its chief in connection with a coal smuggling case.

Its officials faced obstructions during the raids on Thursday, with the ED claiming that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee entered the premises and took away ''key'' evidence related to the probe.

A Delhi Police officer said the MPs were detained and taken to Parliament Street Police Station, as protests are not permitted outside the Home Ministry's office. The MPs were released by the police around 3 pm.

Holding placards and raising slogans alleging misuse of the ED, MPs Derek O'Brien, Satabdi Roy, Mahua Moitra, Bapi Haldar, Saket Gokhale, Pratima Mondal, Kirti Azad and Sharmila Sarkar tried to enter the Kartavya Bhavan, which houses the Home Ministry.

The MPs were stopped from entering the building, after which they staged a protest at the gate, disregarding requests made by the police to vacate the area. They were then forcefully evicted from the spot.

Visuals of O'Brien, Moitra, Haldar, Roy, and Gokhale being physically picked, pushed and shoved in a bus flooded social media, with several of the clips being shared by the TMC on its official X handle.

''What kind of arrogance is this, Amit Shah? Are you now using your Delhi Police to assault elected representatives just to crush democracy? Is this how dissent is silenced in your India?'' the TMC charged in a post on X.

''Admit it, you are rattled! First, the shameless misuse of the ED. Now, an attack on the peaceful dharna of our eight MPs. This desperation exposes your fear. You may try to choke democracy, but Bengal will not be cowed. Shame on you and your police!'' the ruling party in poll-bound West Bengal said.

The MPs also shared visuals from the bus, in which they were seen raising slogans against the Union government.

Moitra also took a dig at Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya's faux pas moment when he recently mispronounced the names of two Kolkata-based football clubs.

Talking to the media at the Parliament Street Police station, Moitra accused the government of ''using'' the ED to ''steal'' their party's election strategy.

''Never before in a democracy has a government made ED its agent to steal information and election strategy from our political consultant. They are claiming there was a seven-to-10-year-old scam. You could not probe it all this time; now you are remembering it on the eve of the election.

''Mamata Banerjee went to the place and took away the election strategy; she's showing how to fight the BJP. People of Bengal will teach them a lesson,'' the Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal's Krishnanagar said.

''We were holding a peaceful protest, you have seen how they dragged us. But we are tough. This is our democratic right, they pulled us here,'' she said.

Lok Sabha MP Kirti Azad said, ''We were holding a peaceful protest against the unconstitutional raid by the ED. Amit Shah wanted to steal our election strategy and the names of candidates.'' ''We want to know why the ED attacks only the opposition,'' he said, while adding that Narayan Rane, Ajit Pawar and Himanta Biswa Sarma were branded as corrupt by ruling leaders, but no action was taken against them.

In a post on X, Rajya Sabha MP Gokhale said, ''After the failure of SIR, the BJP has resorted to its old tactic of using pliant central agencies''.

''Today, we eight MPs of TMC were peacefully protesting outside Amit Shah's office in Delhi. We were dragged, assaulted, and forcibly arrested. This is how scared Amit Shah is -- pulling MPs by their hair and dragging them on the floor,'' he said, sharing a video of the MPs being evicted by police.

Reacting to the police action, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee took to X to say, ''Democracy is punished. Criminals are rewarded. Agencies are weaponised. Elections are manipulated. Jail the protesters. Bail the rapists. This is BJP's version of New India.'' ''Even if the rest of the country is forced to surrender, Bengal will resist. We will fight you tooth and nail and defeat you, no matter how much force you unleash,'' the Lok Sabha MP from Diamond Harbour said.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the TMC supremo, on Thursday accused the ED of attempting to seize her party's internal data and election strategy during the raids.

She had termed the raids ''political vendetta'' and alleged misuse of central agencies to intimidate opposition parties.

TMC leaders have maintained that I-PAC, which provides political consultancy services to the party and manages its IT and media operations, was being targeted to gain access to sensitive internal documents. The party has announced protests against the ED action both in West Bengal and at the national level.

In Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee led a protest march against the ED's searches linked to political consultancy firm I-PAC, as her TMC mounted a show of street strength ahead of the 2026 assembly polls.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)