KOLKATA: West Bengal Police (WBP) on Friday froze 12 more accounts of the Mamata Banerjee faction of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in various nationalised and private banks.
This comes a day after the Calcutta High Court (HC) on Thursday allowed the party to use funds from its three other frozen bank accounts for day-to-day administrative and legal expenses.
According to sources, the police have directed the bank authorities concerned to freeze 12 more accounts of the AITC belonging to Mamata Banerjee's faction, which has around Rs 1,000 crore lying in the 15 bank accounts, including the three previously frozen accounts.
The three frozen accounts in a premier private bank, worth around Rs 440 crore, were made debit-frozen on June 18 by Bidhannagar cyber police following a complaint lodged by the rebel faction led by MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, claiming the funds contained proceeds of the crime.
The Bidhannagar police have by this time recorded statements of the seven rebel MLAs, including Ritabrata and Sandipan, in order to find out why the dissident legislators claim the funds contained proceeds of the crime.
Following the ongoing probe related to the three frozen accounts, sources requesting anonymity said that the investigating police officials want to know about the transaction details in the 12 other bank accounts.
While issuing an interim order, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya on Thursday noted that, prima facie, the complaint appeared omnibus in nature without pinpointing any transaction.
“The court is unable to find particular materials which could have been based on such abrupt steps,” Justice Bhattacharyya observed.
The court has appointed Justice Subrata Talukdar, a retired judge, as a special officer to handle the banking transactions of the frozen accounts till September 30.
The special officer can release funds required for the day-to-day political activities of the Trinamool Congress faction aligned with Mamata Banerjee.
“No other expenditure, major or minor, shall be permitted,” the order said.
According to the court directive, funds can be withdrawn from the three frozen accounts against cheques signed by two approved signatories.
The signed cheques must be presented before the special officer, who will verify and countersign before releasing them to the bank.
Friday's court directive can be changed if any one of the two AITC factions gets the Election Commission of India’s official recognition to claim the funds lying in the frozen accounts.
The High Court also directed the special officer to file a report on the expenditure incurred during the period on the next hearing of the case scheduled for September 21.
Cracks developed within the Trinamool Congress after it suffered a crushing defeat to the BJP in the recent assembly elections in Bengal.
The former ruling party in the state was divided into two camps – the Mamata Banerjee faction and breakaway groups of rebel MLAs led by Ritabrata Banerjee, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
The national poll body sought views from the two camps against the backdrop of the split in the AITC.
In the meantime, one Trinamool Congress MLA from South 24 Parganas district on 18 June lodged a complaint with the Bidhannagar cyber police station alleging huge funds from cyber fraud operations were deposited in the accounts of several banks.
"A portion of the funds has also been deposited in the bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress," he alleged.
Police registered an FIR based on the complaint lodged by the MLA and asked the private bank authorities to freeze three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress.
The Mamata Banerjee faction filed a petition in the High Court challenging the move by the police.
"On the other hand, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued orders to freeze the Trinamool Congress’s bank deposits worth around Rs 440 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), following searches in an alleged funds misappropriation case," sources said.
The ED’s order came a day after the central investigating agency’s separate teams conducted search-and-seizure operations in five areas in Kolkata, Salt Lake and New Town on Tuesday as part of a probe into alleged money laundering through bank accounts linked to the Trinamool Congress.
The orders were issued under Section 17 (1-A) of the PMLA.
