Calcutta HC seeks details from ED on TMC’s frozen bank accounts

THe Calcutta heights margaret court on mon directed the Enforcement board of directors (ED) to furnish inside information of all bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and questioned a lower court’s recent order that forbade the party from accessing those accounts, lawyers who attended the hearing said.The single bench of Justice Krishna Rao reserved its order after hearing a petition filed by TMC Rajya Sabha member Dola Sen, a Mamata Banerjee loyalist and critic of the Ritabrata Banerjee-led rebel faction recognised by the speaker of the Bharatiya Janata Party-dominated Bengal assembly as the official opposition.“During the hearing on Sen’s petition seeking permission to access eight bank accounts frozen by ED on July 7, additional solicitor general S V Raju, who appeared for the federal agency, cited a recent order of the Alipore civil court which said the Mamata Banerjee-led faction cannot use any bank account or the party office and ordered a status quo till August 6,” a lawyer who attended the hearing said.“Countering this, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the court on behalf of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC that the Alipore Court passed an ex-parte order and his client did not even receive a hearing notice. Singhvi also stated that only the Election Commission of India can declare which faction represents the real TMC,” the lawyer added.Also Read:Derek O’Brien slams TMC accounts freeze amid Ram Temple donation row: ‘When will ED freeze temple funds’“Justice Rao asked if a civil court can play the role of ECI and refused to hear the lawyer representing the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction,” the lawyer said.Monday’s development occurred days after the single bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya ruled on July 9 that the Mamata Banerjee-led faction could use three bank accounts frozen by the state police in June only for day-to-day expenses and legal expenditures but under the supervision of a retired high court judge.The court appointed retired judge Subrata Talukdar as special officer till September 30 to supervise the use of these accounts.However, the ED froze approximately ₹440 crore currently in those three accounts as part of its ongoing probe into the alleged laundering of around ₹160 crore from the party’s funds through Carewell Aviation, a Kolkata-based company to allegedly buy two aircrafts.On July 10, TMC legislator and Mamata Banerjee loyalist Kunal Ghosh alleged that at least four more bank accounts were frozen that day.