Mamata leads nearly 10-km-long march through heart of Kolkata
New Delhi/Kolkata: 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.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged that the ED’s searches at the premises of I-PAC were aimed at “stealing” the TMC’ internal strategy ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, asserting that she had done “nothing wrong” by personally reaching the raid site a day earlier.
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.
In a sharp personal attack in the very opening stretch of her address at a rally in Kolkata, Banerjee accused senior BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, of benefiting from proceeds of the coal scam and claimed she could place evidence in the public domain if required.
Addressing the rally after leading a nearly 10-km-long protest march through the heart of Kolkata, Banerjee said, “What I did yesterday, I did as the TMC chairperson. I have done nothing illegal.”
“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.
The ED on Thursday alleged that Banerjee entered Pratik Jain’s residence during the raid in a money laundering case linked to alleged coal smuggling and took away “key evidence”, including physical documents and electronic devices.
Moitra 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.
