The Calcutta High Court on Thursday allowed the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) to use its three bank accounts, which were frozen in June, only for daily expenses and also under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge, lawyers who attended the hearing said.
The single bench of Justice Saujata Bhattacharya appointed retired Justice Subrata Talukdar as a special officer till September 30 to supervise the use of these accounts which the state police had ordered frozen.
Directing that the special officer receive a monthly bonus of $The court said of this money 1.25 lakh his signature would be mandatory for withdrawal of funds only to meet the day-to-day expenses of the party and legal expenses.
“The special officer may not authorize any other expenses, large or small,” the judge said.
The accounts were frozen on June 19, less than 24 hours after Biswanath Das, an MLA from the rebel TMC faction headed by Ritabrata Banerjee, filed a complaint with Bidhan Nagar police alleging the transfer of funds.
While appearing before the TMC, senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kishore Datta termed the accusations as baseless and said the party is facing great difficulty in meeting its expenses.
Read also: ED freezes $Rs 440 crore in TMC’s bank accounts due to ‘suspicious transactions’
The court questioned the speed with which the police acted on the complaint.
The judge asked: “Why this lightning speed? When a poor citizen comes to the police station, the police are not activated.”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the state, said the state acted to protect people’s money. He also opposed freezing accounts.
Thursday’s hearing was only related to the case filed by Bidhan Nagar police. The next session is scheduled to be held on September 21.
The lawyers said the TMC may face legal hurdles while accessing the accounts.
Today, Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate froze approx $Rs 440 crore is currently in the three accounts as part of the ongoing probe into alleged money laundering $160 crore of party funds through a Kolkata-based company.
