The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to interfere with a Calcutta High Court order denying interim relief to the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress against the Enforcement Directorate's decision to freeze three of the party’s bank accounts in connection with a money-laundering probe.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale said after perusing the records, it was satisfied that the high court had passed a "balanced" order.
"Upon perusing the records, including the impugned order, we are satisfied that the high court has passed a balanced order. The main writ petitions are pending consideration before the high court. Any discussions on merit will have a bearing on the pending writ petitions. As we are satisfied that the interim orders passed take care of the parties, we are not inclined to interfere in both the matters," the bench said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen the three bank accounts, with balances totalling Rs 440.42 crore, in connection with its money-laundering probe arising out of an FIR lodged by the West Bengal Police over alleged dishonest financial transactions, unlawful collection of money and routing of suspected funds through certain accounts of the TMC.
The apex court was hearing a plea filed by the Banerjee-led faction of the party, challenging a July 20 order of the Calcutta High Court.
The high court had denied interim relief to the Banerjee-led faction to operate the three bank accounts frozen by the ED.
During the hearing in the top court, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing in the matter for the petitioner, said the party cannot even pay salary to its employees due to the frozen accounts.
"Everything is frozen. I cannot pay salaries. I cannot pay my employees. Why are you freezing more than the proceeds of crime? They are also freezing recipient accounts. This is not fair," he said.
Additional Solicitor General S V Raju submitted that the high court had allowed the accounts to be operated for day-to-day expenditure.
"There are three bank accounts unencumbered for day-to-day operations," he said.
In its order, the high court had noted that other than the three accounts under "debit-freeze" by the ED, there were 36 accounts in the party's name and a total amount of Rs 164 crore was lying there.
The top court was told that the high court had appointed one of its former judges as a special officer to facilitate the operation of the three bank accounts for incurring the day-to-day expenditure to run the political party.
The Banerjee-led faction of the TMC had moved the high court challenging the initiation of ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report), an equivalent of an FIR, proceedings by the ED.
According to officials, the ED's preliminary investigation had found that an amount of around Rs 160 crore was transferred from the TMC's bank accounts to Carewell Aviation India Private Limited and its related entities between April 2023 and June 2026.
The company is alleged to have further routed Rs 82.96 crore (between 2023 and 2026) to another newly-incorporated entity.
It was claimed that a "significant" amount was transferred to this entity. Of this, an amount of Rs 112 crore was used for purchasing an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet and an AgustaWestland 109SP helicopter, the officials had said.
(With inputs from PTI)
