New Delhi/Kolkata: Trinamool Congress will not be able to withdraw any funds from its three accounts with Rs 440 crore at HDFC Bank’s Central Plaza branch despite a Calcutta High Court order de-freezing them on Thursday. This is because Enforcement Directorate, in a separate order, has frozen these three accounts under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act as part of a money-launder probe.Trinamool on Friday once again moved the high court, challenging the ED move. Its plea is likely to be heard on Monday.The HC’s unfreeze order on Thursday came on a Trinamool plea challenging a debit freeze imposed on the three accounts by Bidhannagar police on the basis of a complaint filed by a rebel party MLA. Calling the police action “hurried”, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya allowed the party to withdraw day-to-day expenses and legal costs under the supervision of retired HC judge Justice Subrata Talukdar, who was appointed by the court as a special officer till Sept 30.On Friday, HDFC Bank approached Justice Bhattacharyya’s bench, mentioning fresh orders from the ED to seize the bank accounts. Justice Bhattacharyya, however, refused to intervene, saying, “Whatever it may be, I have passed an order. When it comes up, you take appropriate steps.”Parallelly, senior advocate Kishore Datta sought an urgent hearing before Justice Krishna Rao, saying, “All bank accounts of a political party have been frozen. We learnt about this from a press release the day before yesterday.”When Justice Rao asked if a similar case was pending before Justice Bhattacharyya, Datta submitted that the case before the latter concerned a predicate offence under the cybercrime wing of Bidhannagar police, in which relief was granted. However, the case brought before Justice Rao challenges the ED action.ED sources said the agency was not a party to the petition on which Justice Bhattacharyya delivered his judgement on Thursday, and its freezing of the accounts under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act was not a matter decided by that court order.Trinamool has 18 declared bank accounts, and the ED’s freeze applies to only three of the six accounts the party holds with HDFC Bank. Of the remaining 12 accounts, seven are with Indian Bank in Kolkata, one with Union Bank in Kolkata, and four with SBI — two each in Delhi and Kolkata.The ED’s action followed a search at an aviation company in Kolkata on Wednesday. The agency claimed its investigation revealed Rs 160 crore was allegedly laundered by certain Trinamool functionaries through an aviation firm, Carewell Aviation, to purchase an Embraer aircraft and an Agusta chopper.In addition, the agency claimed $1.7 million was arranged as an unsecured loan from a Cayman Islands-based entity to purchase the helicopter. The ED is currently probing the Cayman Islands connection to the aircraft and chopper bought using Trinamool funds.
