Kolkata/Delhi, April 14, 2026 – In a major political‑legal development ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections, a Delhi court has remanded Vinesh Chandel, director and co‑founder of the political consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (I‑PAC), to 10‑day Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody in a money‑laundering case linked to the alleged Bengal coal‑smuggling scam. The order, passed by Additional Sessions Judge Shefali Barnala Tandon at Patiala House Court, comes after the ED arrested Chandel in New Delhi on the night of April 13, accusing him of using I‑PAC’s corporate and hawala‑linked channels to launder proceeds of crime to the tune of about ₹50 crore.

According to ED‑field and court documents, the case stems from a Delhi Police FIR and a PMLA‑registered money‑laundering investigation that traces financial flows connected to illegal coal mining, transportation and alleged kickbacks in West Bengal. Investigators say PAC Consulting Private Limited (I‑PAC), in which Chandel holds a 33% stake and serves as a founding director, was used as a front for receiving both accounted and unaccounted funds, granting unsecured loans without genuine business backing, issuing bogus invoices, and routing money through third‑party entities and informal channels. The probe has also flagged the alleged use of domestic and international hawala networks to move large‑sum cash, with the initial estimate of laundered proceeds pegged at roughly ₹50 crore.

Central to the political sensitivity of the case is the fact that I‑PAC is a key campaign‑consultancy and strategy unit for several major state and national parties, including Trinamool Congress (TMC), which alleges that the ED‑driven raids on I‑PAC’s Salt Lake office in Kolkata earlier in April were aimed not just at coal‑related money‑flows but at accessing highly confidential election‑strategy data of the ruling party. TMC leaders have branded the timing of Chandel’s arrest and the prior raids as a pre‑poll “political Vendetta”, arguing that the probe’s focus on a Kolkata‑based political‑data firm is being timed to destabilise the state’s electoral narrative just weeks before polling.

The ED, however, defends the action as strictly anti‑corruption‑driven, saying that the investigation into coal‑linked financial irregularities has naturally led it to entities that routed or parked illicit funds, regardless of their political‑consultancy role. Agency officials add that the 10‑day ED‑remand period is sought to press Chandel for details on the web of shell companies, benamis, and banking‑hawala conduits allegedly used to camouflaging the coal‑fraud proceeds, including how some funds may have flowed into or through I‑PAC‑linked accounts or linked individuals such as co‑founder Rishi Raj Singh and former AAP communications‑in‑charge Vijay Nair, whose properties were also raided earlier this month.

With the West Bengal assembly‑poll calendar now overlapping the unfolding coal‑smuggling and money‑laundering drama, the remand of Vinesh Chandel places the spotlight squarely on how political‑consultancy networks interface with black‑money circuits, and whether the ED’s custodial push is perceived as a straightforward financial‑fraud probe or a strategic move in the state’s charged electoral politics. For the ruling TMC, the case is a cautionary tale of how economic‑crime investigations can ramify into the heart of election‑battle‑room data; for the Opposition and the Enforcement Directorate, it is a test of whether coal‑linked corruption can be prosecuted without being dismissed as election‑time theatrics.