In a relief to the Kalighat faction of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), the Calcutta High Court has appointed a special officer, Retired Justice Subrata Talukdar to permit the party to temporarily operate their frozen bank accounts for their daily operational expenses.
The court expressed its dissatifation at the evidence produced by the police for ordering the freeze.
While Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for the TMC, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta represented the state police.
The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) had frozen balances amounting to Rs 440.42 crore in three accounts of the AITC as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation.
The probe pertained to alleged financial transactions involving the Carewell Group of companies which operated in the aviation sector.
According to the ED, the investigation was initiated on the basis of an FIR registered by the Cyber Police Station in Bidhannagar alleging dishonest financial dealings, unlawful collection of money and routing of suspected funds through certain bank accounts of the political party.
The ED’s investigation has so far revealed that approximately Rs 160 crore was transferred from AITC bank accounts to Carewell Aviation India Pvt. Ltd. and its related entities between April 2023 and June 2026.
The central probe agency mentioned that the funds were subsequently routed through other related companies as part of a series of financial transactions that are now under scrutiny.
The ED claimed that Carewell Aviation transferred Rs 82.96 crore between 2023 and 2026 to another newly incorporated related entity for the purchase of an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet and an Agusta 109 Grand New helicopter.
According to the ED, a total of Rs 112 crore was spent on acquiring the two aircraft. It further claimed that an unsecured loan of USD 1.7 million was arranged in 2023 from a Cayman Islands-based entity to finance the purchase of the helicopter.
“These Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and Agusta helicopter were subsequently rented out to AITC itself, even though they were purchased from the corpus of AITC. Thereafter, substantial amounts were transferred on the pretext of aircraft usage. The above stated dubious arrangement is under investigation to ascertain the actual beneficial purpose of the transactions,” the ED mentioned in its official statement.
Officials said the agency is examining whether the alleged arrangement resulted in diversion or laundering of funds. Investigators are also looking into the financial trail connected to the purchase of the aircraft and the payments allegedly made for their subsequent use.
Reacting to the ED’s action, the Trinamool Congress alleged that the freezing of its bank accounts was “politically motivated” and described the move as “illegal.” It maintained that the central agency’s action was aimed at targeting it for political reasons.
The ED, however, has maintained that the investigation is based on the financial trail emerging from the FIR and subsequent examination of banking transactions.