Kolkata: ED on Wednesday asked HDFC Bank to freeze Rs 440.4 crore parked in three of Trinamool’s bank accounts at the bank’s Central Plaza branch, prompting the party to call the move “politically motivated, illegal, and arbitrary”. The freezing request was made as part of ED’s investigation into alleged laundering of Rs 160 crore of party funds through a Kolkata-based company, Carewell Aviation. The funds were allegedly used to buy an Embraer 600 aircraft and an Agusta chopper for Rs 112 crore.This is the first time the agency has seized bank accounts of a political party.“It is also revealed that $1.7 million was arranged as an unsecured loan in 2023 from a Cayman Islands entity to purchase the said helicopter,” ED has said. Sources added that Trinamool had paid merely Rs 1.6 lakh to the Car ewell Group during that specific yearThe aircraft and chopper were solely used by a top TMC functionary and more funds were laundered as “rentals” using the aviation firm, the ED claimed.“The Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and Agusta helicopter were rented to TMC itself, even though they were purchased from the corpus of the party, and 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,” ED said. Sources said ED may question TMC functionaries, including former CM Mamata Banerjee and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.This comes even as the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday indicated it was considering appointing retired HC judge Justice Subrata Talukdar as a special officer to manage TMC accounts for day-to-day expenses. TMC had moved the HC against the earlier Kolkata Police order to put a debit-freeze on these three accounts.“Some retired judge of the Calcutta High Court could be appointed as a special officer. It was in my mind to appoint Justice Subrata Talukdar to act as a special officer. However, his son has appeared on behalf of a respondent in this case. If you have something in mind, you can express it,” Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya said.In a statement, Trinamool countered: “All funds held in the party’s bank accounts have been fully and transparently disclosed. The party has duly reported all donation transactions to the Election Commission of India and the income tax department.” The party added that details regarding its electoral bonds are already available with the Union govt, as the bonds were issued by the State Bank of India (SBI) and subsequently submitted to the Supreme Court.“We strongly condemn this arbitrary and illegal action. The misuse of investigative agencies to target political opponents has become a hallmark of the BJP’s politics and represents a serious assault on democratic institutions,” the statement read.
