Calcutta HC adjourns hearing in TMC bank accounts’ case

The private bank where three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress party have been debit-frozen filed a report before the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday, as per its direction to disclose the corpus held in those accounts.

Taking note of personal difficulty expressed by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who is representing the Bidhannagar police in this matter, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya adjourned the hearing until Thursday.

Hearing a petition by the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the TMC challenging the debit-freeze of the party’s three bank accounts, Justice Bhattacharyya had on July 2 directed the private bank to disclose the corpus held in those accounts. The court did not open the report which was submitted because the hearing was adjourned.

Bringing to the court’s notice that a few more bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress have also been debit-frozen, the Mamata Banerjee-led faction’s lawyer Kishore Dutta stated that he will file a supplementary affidavit in this regard on the next date of hearing.

Justice Bhattacharyya said he is contemplating appointment of retired Calcutta High Court Judge Subrata Talukdar as a special officer over the debit-frozen bank accounts, but since his son represents one of the respondents as lawyer, he would seek the views of the parties in the matter if appointment of special officer is finally directed. Justice Bhattacharyya had on July 2 said the court is contemplating whether these three accounts can be allowed to be operated by joint special officers, who would be retired judges of the court, during the pendency of the petition.

Justice Bhattacharyya, during the hearing on July 2, also allowed the Bidhannagar Police to place records before the court on the next date regarding the complaint and the investigation into the resultant FIR. The debit operations of three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress have been frozen following complaints by rebel party MLAs seeking a probe into the source of the funds.

Some MLAs aligned with the Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction of the TMC complained to the cybercrime police station of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, seeking a detailed investigation into the accounts.