Prateek Tanmay
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) said on Wednesday that it has frozen three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), holding deposits worth Rs 440.42 crore, under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act), following searches in an alleged funds misappropriation case.
According to ED sources, the preliminary probe has found that the political party had invested its own corpus into a private aviation firm to acquire a business jet and a helicopter.
“The ED conducted search operations at five premises in and around Kolkata under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The premises belonged to the Carewell group of companies, which operates in the aviation sector. During the searches, balances amounting to Rs 440.42 crore lying in three HDFC Bank accounts of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) were frozen under Section 17(1-A) of the PMLA,” an ED spokesperson said.
The searches were conducted in connection with a money laundering investigation based on an FIR lodged by the Cyber Police, Bidhannagar, in a case involving alleged dishonest financial dealings, unlawful collection of money, and routing of suspected funds through certain bank accounts of the TMC, the spokesperson said.
According to the ED, its probe has revealed that around Rs 160 crore was transferred from TMC bank accounts to M/s Carewell Aviation India Pvt Ltd, and its related entity, mostly between April 2023 and June 2026.
It was further revealed that M/s Carewell Aviation India Pvt Ltd routed Rs 82.96 crore between 2023 and 2026 to another newly incorporated related entity for the purchase of an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and an Agusta 109 GrandNew helicopter.
“A total of Rs 112 crore was used for these purchases. It was also revealed that USD 1.7 million was arranged as an unsecured loan in 2023 from a Cayman Islands-based entity to purchase the helicopter,” the spokesperson added.
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“These Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and Agusta helicopter were subsequently rented out to TMC itself, even though they were purchased from the corpus of TMC. Later, substantial amounts were transferred on the pretext of aircraft usage. The above-mentioned dubious arrangement is under investigation to ascertain the actual beneficial purpose of the transactions,” the spokesperson said.
The TMC, led by Mamata Banerjee, had earlier moved the High Court seeking its immediate intervention after three of its party accounts, allegedly containing Rs 440 crore, were frozen by the West Bengal Police.
Following the party’s defeat in the Assembly polls, the rebel group of TMC MLAs and leaders had asked the bank to freeze the party’s accounts, citing “serious dispute” within the organisation.
The rebels also complained to the Cyber Crime unit of Bidhannagar police, seeking a probe into the source of the funds.
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A day later, the police registered an FIR based on the rebel TMC leaders’ complaint.
Last week, the single bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya also directed the manager of the HDFC Bank’s Central Plaza branch to disclose the corpus held in those accounts and file an affidavit in this regard.
On Wednesday, the HDFC Bank, where three TMC’s bank accounts have been debit-frozen, filed a report before the High Court.
Taking note of personal difficulty expressed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the Bidhannagar Police, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya adjourned the hearing until Thursday.
The court did not open the bank report as the hearing was adjourned.
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Bringing to the court’s notice that a few more bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress have also been debit-frozen, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction’s lawyer, Kishore Dutta, stated that he will file a supplementary affidavit on the next date of hearing.
Justice Bhattacharyya said he is contemplating the appointment of retired Calcutta High Court Judge Subrata Talukdar as a special officer over the debit-frozen bank accounts, but since his son represents one of the respondents as a lawyer, he would seek the views of the parties in the matter if the appointment of a special officer is finally directed.
Justice Bhattacharyya had on July 2 said the court is contemplating whether these three accounts can be allowed to be operated by joint special officers, who would be retired judges of the court, during the pendency of the petition.
With PTI
