Last week, the hearing of the IPAC raid case could not be held as Mamata Banerjee's lawyer, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, was unwell.

Bengal police officer and ED engage in a heated exchange during I-PAC raid hearing.

The case of raids on the office of political consultancy firm I-PAC and the residence of its co-founder Pratik Jain, in Bengal witnessed a heated debate in the Supreme Court on Wednesday (February 18, 2026) . A West Bengal police officer accused the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of using the agency as a weapon, to which the ED lawyer replied that the investigating agency was terrified.

A bench of Justices PK Mishra and KV Vishwanathan was hearing a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which alleged that during the investigation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at the site of the investigation with senior police officers and obstructed the investigation. 

During Wednesday's hearing, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, representing a West Bengal police officer, accused the ED of being used as a weapon. Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, representing the ED, countered that the ED was not being weaponized, but rather intimidated. Following this, the Supreme Court adjourned the hearing until after Holi and set a date for March 18th. 

Last week, senior advocate Kapil Sibal's health was poor, leading to adjournment of the hearing. The ED's raid on the IPAC office on January 8th was primarily aimed at investigating hawala links in a multi-crore money laundering case related to coal smuggling.

In its petition, the ED has sought a direction from the Supreme Court to register an FIR against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state Director General of Police (DGP) and the Kolkata Police Commissioner, alleging that its statutory duties were obstructed during the search operation.

In her counter-affidavit, Mamata Banerjee denied all allegations. She stated that she went to Pratik Jain's Loudon Street residence and the IPAC office in Bidhannagar on January 8, 2026, after receiving information that sensitive political data of the Trinamool Congress was being accessed during the searches.

The affidavit states that this data was closely related to the strategy for the upcoming assembly elections. According to Mamata Banerjee, she politely requested permission from ED officials to take the party's data and related equipment/files, to which the officials did not object. After taking the data, she left the scene so as not to disrupt the search process.

The affidavit also claims that the ED's panchnama report records that the searches proceeded peacefully and in an orderly manner. The Chief Minister also argued that neither the Trinamool Congress nor its officials are accused in the coal scam, so the ED has no right to claim confidential party data.

The counter affidavit accused the ED of acting with malafide intentions, saying the raids were conducted just before the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections and at a time when IPAC was in possession of crucial documents, including a list of potential candidates.

The affidavit also alleged violation of statutory safeguards under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and said the ED could not produce any audio or video recording of the search, raising questions about the transparency of the action.