ED freezes TMC’s bank deposits worth Rs 440 crore, action under PMLA on alleged misuse of funds

New Delhi/Kolkata, July 8. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday said it has frozen three bank accounts of Trinamool Congress (TMC) under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Rs 440 crore are deposited in these accounts.

This action has been taken after the search in the case of alleged misuse of funds. However, there was no immediate reaction from the political party led by former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The central agency said in a statement that the orders were issued under Section 17 (1A) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. This section empowers the ED officer to freeze any asset (such as bank deposits) when it is not practical to seize such asset and it is necessary that the asset not be transferred or put to any other use.

Such order has to be confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority of PMLA within a certain time limit. ED said TMC has Rs 440.42 crore deposited in three HDFC bank accounts.

As part of this development, the private bank where TMC has these accounts filed a report on the instructions of the Calcutta High Court to disclose the amount deposited in these accounts. However, the court did not open the report and the hearing was postponed till Thursday.

of Kolkata Police On the basis of FIR, ED raided 5 places

The ED on Tuesday raided five places in Kolkata, including the premises of a private jet and charter hiring company named ‘Carewell Aviation India Private Limited’. The agency took this action after taking cognizance of the FIR lodged by Kolkata Police (Bidhannagar Cyber ​​Wing). This FIR was related to allegations of dishonest financial transactions, illegal collection of money and diversion of suspicious funds through some bank accounts of the party. It is noteworthy that TMC was ousted from power by BJP in the last assembly elections.

About Rs 160 crore transferred to Carewell Aviation and its associated companies

According to media reports, preliminary investigation has revealed that between April 2023 and June 2026, approximately Rs 160 crore was transferred from TMC’s bank accounts to Carewell Aviation and its associated companies.

Rs 112 crore used to buy aircraft and helicopters

According to the information provided by the ED, Carewell Aviation transferred Rs 82.96 crore to a newly formed related company during 2023-2026 to purchase an aircraft ‘Embraer Legacy 600’ and a helicopter ‘Agusta 109 Grandnew’ and Rs 112 crore was used for these purchases.

The agency said that an ‘unsecured’ loan of US $ 1.7 million was taken from a Cayman Islands company in 2023 to purchase the helicopter. ED alleges that both these flying assets were given ‘on rent’ to TMC while they were purchased from the party’s funds.

The ED said that after this, huge amounts of money were transferred in the name of using the aircraft. According to the agency, the ‘suspicious’ arrangement mentioned above was being investigated to find out the real purpose of these transactions.

Rebel TMC MLAs had demanded investigation into the source of funds.

Last month, Kolkata Police had banned debit operations (facility of withdrawing money) from the same three bank accounts based on complaints by rebel TMC MLAs. These MLAs had demanded an investigation into the source of funds as there was internal strife over control of party funds.