New Delhi: The Patiala House Court in Delhi on Thursday granted I-PAC director Vinesh Chandel regular bail a day after the West Bengal Assembly election 2026 ended. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Chandel, one of the chiefs of the Indian Political Action Committee or I-PAC on April 13 in an alleged money laundering case. The I-PAC is the political consultant of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Bengal. Notably, the ED did not oppose the court order of granting Chandel bail.
ED chose not to oppose bail order
The court’s Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Amit Bansal passed the order and noted that while the “Special Public Prosecutor has been given the opportunity to oppose the bail, but he has not done so.” The ED arrested Chandel and alleged that he is one of the founders and a 33% shareholder of PAC Consulting Private Limited. The agency is probing him in a money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on Delhi Police’s FIR.
The ED raids in I-PAC office in Kolkata
Before the West Bengal Assembly election began on April 23, the ED the I-PAC’s office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake. They also raided the house of Pratik Jain, another I-PAC chief, during which Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived at the scene and stormed out with a green file. The ED has claimed to have uncovered several instances of I-PAC’s financial irregularities, including the receipt of both accounted and unaccounted funds, unsecured loans lacking legitimate business backing, and routing of funds through third parties. The investigating agency has alleged that I-PAC laundered proceeds of crime to the tune of about Rs 50 crore.
Meanwhile, most of the exit poll projections after the Bengal elections predicted a BJP win in the tightly-fought contest. According to P-Marq, the BJP can win 150 to 175 seats while TMC can get around 118-138 seats. Meanwhile, People’s Pulse predicted that TMC will return to power with 177-187 seats, while BJP may get 95-110 seats.