Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday questioned the admissibility of a petition filed by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction before a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court challenging ED’s move in the three-bank-accounts freeze case.
The three accounts have a combined deposit of Rs 440 crore.
Debit restrictions were imposed on these three bank accounts by the bank authorities following instructions from the West Bengal Police first and then the ED.
Last week, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Sougata Bhattacharya gave conditional access to the Trinamool Congress faction led by Mamata Banerjee.
However, that order did not end the complications for the Trinamool Congress faction led by Mamata Banerjee, since in the meantime and earlier this month, the ED, which is conducting a parallel investigation into these three bank accounts in connection with the money laundering angle, also decided to freeze the accounts.
Therefore, in order to get relief from these continuing complications following ED’s move on this count, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction again approached the Calcutta High Court’s another single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao challenging ED’s move in the matter.
Now, on Monday, ED’s counsel challenged the admissibility of the petition filed at Justice Rao’s bench. Arguing on behalf of the ED, senior advocate S.V. Raju questioned the source of approval granted to the petitioner to file this petition at the Calcutta High Court.
The ED counsel also insisted that written approval to file the petition be obtained before beginning any detailed hearing in the matter.
Justice Rao asked the petitioner’s counsel and the former Advocate General of West Bengal, Kishor Dutta, to clarify the point raised by the ED counsel.
The ED counsel also asked for the presentation of the party’s constitution in the matter.
The party constitution is scheduled to be presented at Justice Rao’s bench later in the day, and the matter will again come up for hearing later in the day.
(IANS)
