Supreme Court Reserves Order On ED's Plea For CBI Probe Against Mamata Banerjee Over Alleged Blocking Of I-PAC Raid
Gursimran Kaur Bakshi
29 Oct 2026 2:57 PM IST
The Supreme Court today(October 29) reserved orders on the writ petition filed by the Directorate of Enforcement and its officers seeking an FIR and investigation against former West Benegal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and certain police officials over the alleged obstruction of the ED's search of the offices of I-PAC, the political consultant of the Trinamool Congress.
The Court reserved orders on the limited aspect whether the Court should refer to the Central Bureau of Investigation or leave it to the newly appointed State Government to investigate.
A bench comprising Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice NV Anjaria concluded the hearing on the writ petition. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, for the former CM, argued that the State can investigate and no Court order was necessary.
"Now Mamata Banerjee is not the Chief Minister, so there is no impediment. Now the State government is in the hands of another political party. They are entitled to send any matter to the CBI. Nobody can stand in the way. Why should your lordship pass orders? ," Sibal said.
Justice Misra referred to the similar arguments made by Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy in the last hearing and stated that the issue of the other side is that they will be accused of having political motives. Sibal responded that he is making a statement that there wouldn't be any such thing.
Additional Solicitor General SV Raju contended that if the State refers to the CBI, there will be allegations of "mala fide". He also stated that senior police officials are also arraigned as accused persons and they would be in a position to influence the investigation.
Apart from Mamata Banerjee, the then WB DGP Rajeev Kumar, the then Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma and the then South Kolkata Dy Commissioner Priyabatra Roy are the respondents in the ED's petition.
The plea follows events when ED officials were conducting searches at the office of I-PAC in Kolkata in connection with a coal scam money laundering probe. During the operation, the former CM allegedly reached the I-PAC office along with senior party leaders and confronted ED officials. The ED has also alleged that the former Chief Minister took away certain files from the premises during the raid, which it claims further impeded the investigation.
