The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to provide details of all bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and questioned the recent lower court order barring the party from accessing those accounts, lawyers who attended the hearing said.
A single bench of Justice Krishna Rao reserved its order after hearing the petition filed by Dola Sen, a TMC Rajya Sabha member, a Mamata Banerjee loyalist and a critic of the rebel faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee, which the BJP-dominated Bengal Assembly Speaker recognized as the official opposition.
“During the hearing on Sen’s plea seeking permission to access eight bank accounts frozen by the ED on July 7, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, appearing for the federal agency, cited the recent order of the Alipore civil court which said the Mamata Banerjee-led faction cannot use any bank account or party office and ordered status quo till August 6,” said one of the lawyers who attended the hearing.
“Confronting this, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the court on behalf of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC that the Alipore court had passed the order in absentia and his client had not even received notice of hearing. Singhvi also stated that only the Election Commission of India can declare which faction represents the real TMC,” the lawyer added.
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“Justice Rao asked whether the civil court could play the role of ECI and refused to listen to the lawyer representing the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction,” the lawyer said.
Monday’s development came days after a single bench bench of Justice Saujata Bhattacharya ruled on July 9 that the Mamata Banerjee-led faction can use three bank accounts frozen by the state police in June only for daily expenses and legal expenses but under the supervision of the retired Supreme Court judge.
The court appointed retired Justice Subrata Talukdar as a special officer until September 30 to supervise the use of these accounts.
However, ED almost froze $There is currently Rs 440 crore in those three accounts as part of the ongoing investigation into alleged money laundering $160 crore of party funds through Carewell Aviation, a Kolkata-based company, to purchase two aircraft.
On July 10, Kunal Ghosh, a TMC lawmaker and Mamata Banerjee loyalist, claimed that at least four more bank accounts had been frozen that day.
