Relief for Mamata Banerjee: Court lets TMC use frozen accounts through officer
The Calcutta High Court has appointed a special officer to manage the day-to-day expenses of the Mamata Banerjee-aligned Trinamool Congress from three bank accounts whose
The Calcutta High Court has appointed a special officer to manage the day-to-day expenses of the Mamata Banerjee-aligned Trinamool Congress from three bank accounts whose debit operations were frozen after a police complaint alleged that they held proceeds of crime. Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya named retired Calcutta High Court judge Subrata Talukdar as special officer to oversee such expenses till September 30. The court also allowed the party to use the accounts for day-to-day spending and legal expenses, while making it clear that the arrangement is only to run the political party and will remain subject to further orders. Read Full Story The complaint was lodged on June 18 at the Cyber Crime Police Station under the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate. It alleged that three TMC accounts in a private bank were repositories of proceeds of crime and sought action from the police. An FIR was registered and the three accounts were made debit-frozen the next day. The complaint was filed by leaders of another TMC faction led by party MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha. The court said any two authorised signatories of the three accounts may present a cheque before the special officer, who will then place it before the bank for encashment. On the petitioner's plea, the court also allowed payments towards legal expenditure of the Mamata Banerjee-aligned TMC and a monthly honorarium of Rs 1.25 lakh for the special officer from the same accounts till September 30.
The special officer has been asked to file a report on the expenditure incurred by the next hearing on September 21. The bank has been directed to preserve electronic records and banking data of the three accounts and cooperate with the ongoing police investigation. The police have also been asked to submit a progress report on the next date of hearing. Noting that the question of recognising a TMC faction is pending before the Election Commission, the court said any decision by the poll body should be brought to its notice for vacating the interim order. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the petitioner, the Mamata Banerjee-aligned Trinamool Congress, told the court that the complainant belonged to a faction formed after the West Bengal Assembly election results were declared on May 4, with the "oblique motive" of crippling a political party. He also said the vote share gap between the TMC and the BJP in the Assembly election was five per cent. Singhvi argued that the complainants had themselves benefited from these accounts because they received financial support from them to contest the election on TMC tickets. The petitioner sought permission to operate the three frozen accounts. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the police, said the investigating agency had to act quickly after receiving the complaint so that the petitioner faction could not carry out illegal transactions through the three accounts.
The BriefWire