ED inside, TMC workers, public lay siege to search venues
Times of India | 9 January 2026
Kolkata: The predictable weekday afternoon rhythm of the Sector V neighbourhood around Godrej Waterside —of tech firm employees stepping out for lunch, app cabs queueing up and guards waving ID cards through glass gates—was abruptly disrupted on Thursday as thousands of Trinamool supporters, led by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, descended on the area even as an ED team continued its search at the I-PAC office.
The ED operation at the I-PAC's 10th-floor office in the Godrej Waterside building began quietly a little after 6 am. At that hour, the complex, which houses KPMG, Awfis, GoodWorks and Godrej Properties, had barely woken up. Only two I-PAC employees were present inside. A few morning-shift IT employees, sipping tea outside, noticed a Govt of India vehicle going into the basement parking lot but did not spare any thought to it."Raids are not unusual in Sector V, especially those on fake call centres here," said a techie. "We felt it was such a routine check."
The mood remained muted in the morning even as TV channels began flashing news of the ED's presence. The calm broke dramatically after noon as CM Mamata Banerjee announced her plan of heading to the Sector V office from I-PAC director Pratik Jain's Loudon Street residence.
Banerjee reached Godrej Waterside around 12.40 pm, using the basement entry and heading straight to the 10th floor. By then, senior Trinamool functionaries, including Bidhannagar mayor Krishna Chakraborty, BMC chairperson Sabyasachi Dutta and fire minister Sujit Bose, had begun assembling outside. Within minutes, hundreds of party workers arrived, and the number soon swelled to thousands.
Police were forced to close one flank of the Sector V road outside the building, allowing only one-way traffic between Ring Road and Sector V College More. Office-goers found themselves hemmed in by human chains of party supporters, shouting slogans, and a barricade by police. "As I stepped out for lunch I found party workers and police thronging the area. Shortly, I realised the CM was inside our building," said an IT professional.
As the news spread, employees of nearby offices gathered, some watching from a distance, some filming on their phones. Such was the congestion that it was difficult to cross the road or access parking. "I couldn't even park my bike in the basement," said an employee working on the seventh floor. "Security was tightened everywhere."
Banerjee stayed inside the building for nearly three-and-a-half hours. As she addressed the media and her supporters, accusing the ED of acting with political motives, slogans grew so loud that she herself had to calm them down. Reaching out to the IT crowd, she described the search on I-PAC as a "larger threat". She called it an "insult and threat to the entire IT industry", a "blow to freedom", questioning if central agencies could "attack an IT office and take away information".
"Our didi is here and she asked us to protest against ED high-handedness," said a party worker. "We are here to show our strength."
Every local councillor, party insiders said, brought at least 300 supporters, a number big enough to overwhelm the usually orderly tech hub. Camerapersons and reporters were followed into the basement, while party supporters went live on social media as Banerjee moved in and out to speak.
As ED officers left around 6.30 pm, they were confronted by loud slogans, claiming the agency's political vendetta against Bengal.