Calcutta HC seeks reports on frozen Trinamool bank accounts, no interim relief

The Calcutta High Court directed a private bank and police to submit reports on the freezing of three Trinamool Congress bank accounts holding around Rs 440 crore. The court declined interim relief, leaving debit restrictions in force pending further hearing

Kolkata: A single judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Thursday, after hearing the petition from the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress challenging the freezing of its three bank accounts held with a private bank, directed the authorities of the said bank to file a detailed affidavit citing all details of the accounts.

At the same time, the single judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya also directed the police, under whose instructions the bank authorities have imposed debit restrictions on these three bank accounts, to submit a progress report on the investigation into the matter.

However, the bench refused to give any order on the Trinamool Congress’s petition seeking withdrawal of debit restrictions on these bank accounts, which means that debit transactions from these three accounts will remain inoperative for the time being and until further orders.

Justice Bhattacharya directed the bank authorities to submit the affidavit by July 7 and also directed the police to submit a report in the matter by the same date.

Earlier this month, the authorities of the private sector commercial bank chose to freeze the accounts following an instruction from the police.

The police directed the bank authorities to freeze these bank accounts following two developments. First, the former treasurer and ex-Minister Aroop Biswas, who currently belongs to the “rebel but majority faction” in the party led by expelled Ritabrata Banerjee, wrote a letter to the bank authorities requesting the freezing of the three bank accounts over apprehension of fund misappropriation.

Later, some Trinamool Congress MLAs from the “rebel but majority” faction also approached the police with the same request. Thereafter, the police directed the bank authorities to freeze the three bank accounts, in which Rs 440 crore is reportedly deposited.

Soon after that, Trinamool Congress’ faction, owing allegiance to former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, the party’s general secretary and Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the freezing of bank accounts.

The matter came up for hearing on Thursday, and after a detailed hearing, Justice Bhattacharya’s bench directed the bank authorities to file the affidavit and the police to submit a progress report on the investigation by next week.