Calcutta HC denies urgent hearing on TMC plea over frozen bank accounts

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday refused an urgent hearing to a petition by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress over the freezing of its bank accounts. Authorities placed a debit freeze on three TMC bank accounts, following complaints by rebel MLAs seeking a probe into the source of the funds. Refusing to give precedence in hearing of the petition by the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the TMC, Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya said the matter will come up for hearing according to the listing serial. The Mamata Banerjee-led faction's lawyer Kishore Dutta informed the court that three bank accounts of the party have been placed under debit freeze, blocking all outward transactions from these accounts, and sought an urgent hearing in the matter. However, the court refused the plea for urgent hearing. The debit operations of three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress holding around Rs 440 crore have been frozen. The freeze follows complaints by some MLAs aligned with rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee to the cyber crime police station under the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, seeking registration of an FIR and a detailed investigation into the accounts. In their complaints, the legislators questioned the source of funds deposited in the accounts and sought an inquiry into transactions. The MLAs urged investigators to ascertain whether the funds originated from lawful sources or from alleged unlawful activities, including suspected cut-money collections, diversion of public funds and proceeds of scams.