The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Kalighat Trinamool treasurer and former Rajya Sabha MP Subhasish Chakraborty as part of its investigation into alleged financial irregularities worth Rs 164 crore, the proceeds of which may have been parked into the party’s bank accounts.
Chakraborty has been asked by investigating officials to come with all documents related to the party’s accounts. According to officials from the central probe agency Chakraborty is the ‘signing authority’ of the three bank accounts, currently frozen.
ED sources claimed that Chakraborty has been asked to appear at its CGO Complex office in Kolkata’s Salt Lake this week.
Speaking to reporters, Chakraborty said that he will be discussing these developments with his party and will seek time from the central agency to respond to the summons.
The Trinamool Congress is currently going through an unpredencted political crisis with a long string of leaders rebelling against the Mamata Banerjee-Abhishek Banerjee camp after its recent poll debacle. The rebel group has even asserted itself to be the ‘real’ faction, even staking claim to the party’s symbol and its coffers.
Former Minister Arup Biswas, who has sided with the rebel camp led by Leader of Opposition Ritabrata Banerjee, first shot off a letter to the bank informing about the irregularities in the party’s funds. Following this, Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, another rebel leader, filed a complaint with the police, which prompted the ED to freeze the accounts.
The invesitgation agency had earlier summoned Pawan Jaju and Ramesh Jaju, two directors of private aviation company Carewell and recorded their statement.
According to ED, TMC had rented planes and helicopters from Carewell and gave them over Rs 160 crore from its party funds from one of these three accounts.
Earlier on July 20, Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao refused to grant an interim stay on the ED’s decision to freeze these accounts having combined deposits of Rs 440 crore.