Kolkata: A crucial hearing at the Calcutta High Court on a petition by Trinamool Congress General Secretary and the party’s Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha MP, Abhishek Banerjee challenging the freezing of his personal bank account, was postponed for a day by a single-judge Bench of the court on Wednesday afternoon.
Abhishek Banerjee, also the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, approached the Calcutta High Court single-judge Bench of Justice Krishna Rao challenging the freezing of his personal bank account just before his scheduled tour to the USA for eye treatment, as permitted by a Division Bench of the Supreme Court earlier this month.
The matter was supposed to be heard by the Bench of Justice Rao on Wednesday. However, Justice Rao sought a clarification report from the bank authorities in the matter first. He directed the bank authorities to submit a report on the matter to his bench by Thursday morning and thereafter the matter will be heard on the same day.
Earlier on August 17, while submitting the petition on behalf of Abhishek Banerjee, his counsel Ayan Bhattacharya claimed that debit restrictions were imposed on the bank account of his client just before his trip abroad for eye treatment and the bank authorities did not even inform his client about the reason for freezing the account.
Abhishek Banerjee’s counsel also pleaded for an urgent hearing in the matter and questioned how the bank authorities could freeze the bank account of an individual without invoking Section 107 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
He pointed out that according to that Section, the police have to first apply to the Magistrate to freeze the account. But in this case, Abhishek Banerjee’s lawyer argued, this procedure was not followed.
Justice Rao admitted the petition and questioned whether any investigation was going on against Abhishek Banerjee. In response, the leader’s lawyer said that his client was cooperating with the investigation process as per the court’s order and the matter had nothing to do with the freezing of the bank account.
Thereafter, Justice Rao ordered for serving of notice to all parties concerned in the matter.
Last week, the Supreme Court’s Division Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI), Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana allowed Abhishek Banerjee to travel abroad for three weeks for medical treatment of his eye, setting aside the Calcutta High Court’s refusal to relax the restriction on his foreign travel.
However, the permission was subject to certain conditions including that he would travel only on his diplomatic passport and share his itinerary and place of stay abroad with the investigating agency.
(IANS)
