Kolkata: A crucial hearing is scheduled before the single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday on a petition by the Mamata Banerjee-led faction in the Trinamool Congress challenging West Bengal Police’s decision to freeze four bank accounts of the party.
The state police ordered the freezing of these four bank accounts held at the public sector Indian Bank based on an FIR related to cybercrime. However, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction has claimed in its petition that there was no evidence of any illegal transactions through these four bank accounts.
The matter will come up for hearing at the single-judge bench of Justice Sougata Bhattacharya later in the day. In the petition, the counsels for the petitioner had pleaded for permission to withdraw from the frozen accounts for essential expenses of the party.
The petitioner’s counsel has also made it clear that if the permission is given through a court-appointed special officer, as was done previously in the case of three other bank accounts held with a private sector bank, on which debit restrictions were first imposed following instructions from the state police and subsequently following similar instructions from the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Incidentally, the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to interfere with the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) freezing of three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress in connection with an alleged money laundering probe, while allowing the existing interim arrangement for the party to meet its day-to-day expenses under the supervision of a court-appointed Special Officer.
The apex court Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and Prasanna B. Varale also disposed of a separate petition filed by rebel Trinamool Congress leader Biswanath Das, who had challenged the Calcutta High Court’s order, contending that he represented the “real party”.
The Justice Sundresh-led Bench observed that the order of the High Court was a “balanced” arrangement as it ensured that the party’s day-to-day operations were not stalled while keeping the operation of the accounts under judicial supervision.
(IANS)
