Cal HC asks private bank to disclose corpus in TMC bank accounts

Kolkata (PTI): Hearing a petition by the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress challenging the debit freeze of the party's bank accounts, the Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the private bank to disclose the corpus held in those accounts.

Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya also allowed the Bidhannagar Police to place records before it on the next date of hearing regarding the complaint before it and the investigation into the resultant FIR.

The court directed the concerned private bank authority to disclose before it the corpus lying in the three accounts of the TMC by July 7.

Justice Bhattacharyya directed that the matter will be heard again on July 8.

Representing the Bidhannagar Police, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta requested the court to defer passing any interim order in the matter for a few days.

Stating that the police have conducted an investigation, Mehta said that he will place before the court records to show that money was being siphoned off.

Mehta said the question is which of the two TMC factions can operate the bank accounts.

Justice Bhattacharyya 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.

The court noted that the FIR was registered on June 18 at 6 pm and the bank wrote to the Mamata Banerjee-led faction the next day that their accounts were debit-frozen.

Justice Bhattacharyya asked in what haste this was done and what prima facie materials were there before the investigating agency.

The SG said that he will place on record materials before the court that may shock the court's conscience.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi asked whether a running political party can be paralysed by freezing its funds and rendering the level playing field uneven.

The act of freezing the bank accounts raises the question of fundamental rights violation, he stated before the court.

He claimed that the complaint is vague and devoid of any factual presentation that can lead to an action by the police.

Singhvi stated that an FIR was registered on the basis of such a complaint and the bank accounts were frozen the very next day.

He submitted before the court that it is true that the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has lost the assembly elections and also that it has suffered depletions in its ranks.

Singhvi argued that a losing party cannot be paralysed by using the state machinery in this manner.

He sought an interim order of the court allowing debit operation of the accounts.

Representing the complainant, senior advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, questioned the maintainability of the petition, claiming that the petitioner has no right to claim access to the bank account since a new national committee of the party has been appointed.

He stated that the reason the complaint was filed is that if a faction is trying to make illegal transactions and route money into accounts to tarnish the reputation of the party, that is an offence, and the police is looking into the complaint in this regard.

Kaul asked on whose authority the petitioner claims to represent the Trinamool Congress, given the rival factions.

The debit operations of three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress have been frozen following complaints by rebel party MLAs seeking a probe into the source of the funds.

Some MLAs aligned with the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction of the TMC complained to the cyber crime police station of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, seeking a detailed investigation into the accounts.