West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Friday strongly defended her actions during the recent Enforcement Directorate operation linked to political consultancy firm I-PAC, asserting that she neither violated the law nor exceeded her authority.

Speaking in Kolkata, Banerjee said her intervention was fully justified and carried out in her capacity as the head of the Trinamool Congress. She alleged that the officials who arrived were not acting transparently and accused them of unlawfully taking sensitive political and personal data.

“Whatever I have done Yesterday, I have done as per my capacity of, Chairman of All India Trinamool Congress. I have not done anything wrong; You have come to murder me and I have the right to protect myself. You came like a Thief, Stealing the SIR data of People, took the address of BLA 1, BLA 2, Applications of Ordinary people, You stole all data from my office, we have authorized IPAC...,” Banerjee said.

The chief minister claimed that the data in question belonged to ordinary citizens and party workers and was legally held by authorised professionals. She reiterated that I-PAC was officially engaged by the Trinamool Congress and that any attempt to seize election-related material amounted to an attack on democratic functioning.