NEW DELHI, July 8: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it had frozen three bank accounts of the former West Bengal ruling party Trinamool Congress holding deposits worth over ₹440 crores under the anti-money laundering law following searches in an alleged funds misappropriation case.
There was no immediate response from the TMC.
The central agency said in a statement that the orders were issued under Section 17 (1A) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). This section authorizes an ED officer to freeze an asset (like a bank deposit) when it is not practicable to seize such a property and it is essential that the asset is not transferred or otherwise dealt with.
Such an order has to be confirmed by the adjudicating authority of the PMLA within a fixed time period. An amount of ₹440.42 crore is held in the three HDFC Bank accounts of the TMC, the ED said.
In a related development, the private bank, where these accounts of the TMC are held, filed a report before the Calcutta High Court as directed to disclose the corpus held in these accounts. The court did not open the report and the hearing was adjourned till Thursday.
The ED on Tuesday had raided five premises in Kolkata, including those belonging to a private jet and charter hiring company named Carewell Aviation India Pvt. Ltd. The agency undertook this action after taking cognizance of an FIR filed by Kolkata police (Bidhannagar cyber wing) regarding allegations of dishonest financial dealings, unlawful money collection, and routing suspected funds through certain bank accounts of the TMC, which was recently ousted from power in West Bengal by the BJP.
According to the agency, its preliminary investigation found that about ₹160 crore was transferred from the TMC’s bank accounts to Carewell Aviation and its related entity between April 2023 and June 2026. “Carewell Aviation routed an amount of ₹82.96 crore during 2023-2026 to another newly incorporated related entity for purchasing an aircraft Embrarer Legacy 600 and a chopper Agusta 109 GrandNew.
“An amount of ₹112 crore was used for making the said purchases,” the ED said. The agency said that an amount of $1.7 million was arranged as “unsecured” loan in 2023 from a Cayman Islands-based entity to purchase the said helicopter.
These two flying assets were “rented” to the TMC, even though they were purchased from the corpus of the party, the ED alleged. “Thereafter, substantial amounts were transferred on the pretext of aircraft usage.”
The ED said the above-stated “dubious” arrangement was under investigation to ascertain the actual beneficial purpose of the transactions. Last month, Kolkata police froze debit operations on these same three bank accounts based on complaints from the TMC’s rebel MLAs seeking a probe into the source of the funds.
(Rohit Kumar)
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