I-PAC Director in ED Custody: The Coal Scam, Bengal Elections, and a Deepening Political Storm

At around 11 pm on Monday, April 13, Vinesh Chandel was brought before a Delhi court and placed in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate. By the early hours of April 14, the court had granted the ED ten days of interrogation time. Chandel — a law graduate from the National Law Institute University in Bhopal, co-founder of I-PAC, and holder of a 33 per cent stake in the company — now faces questioning in a money laundering case rooted in a coal pilferage racket that investigators say generated hundreds of crores of unaccounted money in West Bengal.

The timing is not subtle. West Bengal goes to polls in two phases — April 23 and April 29. I-PAC, or Indian Political Action Committee (the registered entity is Indian PAC Consulting Pvt Ltd), has been the campaign strategist for the Trinamool Congress since at least 2021. Its work is credited with TMC's dominant victory in that year's assembly polls. An arrest of one of its founders ten days before voting begins is, by any reading, a significant political event.

https://twitter.com/ians_india/status/2043790244349390947

The Coal Scam: What Is This Case Actually About?

The original investigation is not about I-PAC. It began in 2020 when the CBI registered a case about large-scale coal pilferage from mines operated by Eastern Coalfields Limited in the Kunustoria and Kajora areas near Asansol, West Bengal. Coal was being illegally extracted from working mines and sold in the black market. The networks involved were extensive — colliery officials, transporters, and middlemen working in tandem. CBI chargesheeted multiple individuals over the following years.

The Enforcement Directorate, which investigates the money laundering side of criminal activity, stepped in later. Money generated from a criminal offence does not stay as cash under a mattress — it moves through transactions, companies, and intermediaries until it appears to be legitimate income. The PMLA allows ED to trace and attach that money and prosecute those who handled it, even if they were not the original coal thieves.

According to the ED, a hawala operator connected to this coal-smuggling network facilitated transactions of tens of crores of rupees to Indian PAC Consulting Pvt Ltd. The agency says it has found evidence of bogus invoices, unsecured loans without business credentials, money movement through third parties, and both domestic and international hawala channels. So far, the ED claims to have detected ₹50 crore in proceeds of crime flowing through or connected to I-PAC.

The January Raid: A Constitutional Standoff

The moment that defined this case politically came on January 8, 2026. ED teams arrived at the I-PAC office in Kolkata's Salt Lake area and at the residence of director Pratik Jain. Standard search procedure in a PMLA probe. What happened next was not standard.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at the search site along with state government officials and, according to the ED, removed documents and electronic devices that were part of the search proceedings. The ED formally alleged its operation was "obstructed" — a serious legal claim — and moved the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe into what it characterised as a "gross abuse of power" by the chief minister.

TMC's response was sharp and direct: the ED was attempting to access I-PAC's election strategy materials ahead of the Bengal assembly polls, and Mamata Banerjee had stepped in to protect the democratic process. "The ED was trying to take our election strategy documents," the party said. Both positions — obstruction of justice versus protection of electoral confidentiality — have now become live legal questions before the Supreme Court.

The April 2 Raids: Expanding the Net

Three months after the January raid, the ED significantly expanded its reach. On April 2, it conducted searches at 11 premises across Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, and Ranchi. These covered I-PAC offices, the Delhi residence of Vinesh Chandel, the Bengaluru residence of co-founder Rishi Raj Singh, the Mumbai home of former AAP communications in-charge Vijay Nair, and various linked entities. The presence of Vijay Nair — connected to the AAP's own legal troubles, including the Delhi liquor policy case — added a layer of political complexity. One investigation was now touching three different political parties' orbit: TMC, AAP, and indirectly the Congress.

The searches on April 2 yielded what the ED described as incriminating material. The agency said it recovered evidence of financial irregularities consistent with its earlier findings and seized digital devices for forensic examination.

The Arrest: Why Chandel, Why Now

Chandel was arrested on the evening of April 13 by the ED's Headquarters Investigation Unit in Delhi — specifically under Section 19 of the PMLA, which requires the officer to have reason to believe that the person is guilty of an offence based on the material in hand. His lawyers contested this strenuously before Additional Sessions Judge Shefali Barnala Tandon at Patiala House Courts, arguing through the night that Chandel had cooperated with prior summons, was neither accused in the original CBI coal case nor linked directly to any scheduled offence, and that the arrest was disproportionate.

The court disagreed. It noted the ED's allegations regarding deleted electronic records following earlier search proceedings — a sign of possible evidence tampering. It accepted the agency's argument that custodial interrogation was necessary to trace the full chain of alleged money movement, identify other persons involved, and prevent destruction of evidence. Chandel is in custody until April 23 — the day of Bengal's first phase of polling.

What the Court Said

The remand order is notable for what the court chose to emphasise. It cited the ED's claim that certain emails and electronic records were deleted after searches — which, if true, suggests active destruction of potential evidence. It also took note of allegations involving hawala transactions and multiple modes of financial laundering. The custody was granted with conditions: interrogation under CCTV coverage, periodic medical examination, and compliance with prescribed legal safeguards. These conditions are standard in high-profile PMLA cases but signal that the court is paying close attention.

The Political Storm

TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was unambiguous. Writing on the night of the arrest, he said the action "shakes the very idea of a level playing field" and accused the BJP-led central government of using investigative agencies as electoral tools. He raised the question of institutions and their integrity in election periods. "When institutions meant to protect democracy start feeling like tools of pressure, trust begins to erode," he said.

The BJP has not issued a formal response to the arrest but has consistently supported ED's role in probing alleged financial crimes in West Bengal, pointing to what it calls a pattern of corruption under the TMC government. The political battle lines here are not new — they have been drawn across multiple ED and CBI actions in Bengal over the past three years.

Where Does This Go From Here

Chandel's custody runs to April 23. The ED will use that time for intensive questioning — the nature of transactions, the money trail, the identities of other recipients, and the specific chain linking coal pilferage proceeds to I-PAC's accounts. After custody ends, one of three things happens: the ED files a prosecution complaint (their equivalent of a chargesheet), the court grants bail, or the agency seeks an extension of custody.

The Supreme Court matter — TMC's allegation of obstruction by Mamata Banerjee vs. ED's claim of gross abuse of power — runs parallel and independently. The Delhi High Court is separately hearing pleas from I-PAC directors Rishi Raj Singh and Pratik Jain seeking quashing of ED summons.

By the time Bengal votes on April 23 and April 29, at least three separate legal proceedings will be active simultaneously. The outcome of any one of them could reshape the others. And the political fallout — whatever the legal merits — will be felt well past polling day.