ED approaches HC seeking protection against harassment by Kolkata Police

Justice Sinha has allowed the ED to file the petition, but maintained that whether it will be admitted or not will be decided after initial hearing in the matter in the second half on Thursday.

Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday approached the Calcutta High Court seeking protection against harassment by Kolkata Police in the case of an inadvertent file download by a central agency official from a computer of an office liked to a prime accused in the multi-crore cash-for-school job case in West Bengal.

The ED official had downloaded 16 personal files while conducting raid and search operations at the office last month, following which an employee of the corporate entity filed a case at the cyber-crime division of Kolkata Police accusing the central agency of planting evidence. The ED has already clarified that the files were inadvertently downloaded by one of its officers after the raid and search operations and those 16 files were related to student hostels that he was searching for his daughter who was admitted to a reputed engineering college in state.

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However, the agency approached the single- judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha, fearing harassment by city police and has sought protection against any coercive action against its officials. ED counsel Dhiraj Trivedi claimed that their central agency officials are being harassed in the process of investigation in financial scams. Our officials are being unnecessarily sent communiques one after another for the purpose of harassment and the root of all these are those 16 downloaded files,he said.

Justice Sinha has allowed the ED to file the petition, but maintained that whether it will be admitted or not will be decided after initial hearing in the matter in the second half on Thursday. The ED official concerned has already been removed from the investigation team and transferred to Guwahati.