The Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 11) refused to interfere with the Calcutta High Court's order denying interim relief to the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), which had sought permission to operate three bank accounts frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as part of a money laundering investigation.
What did the court say?
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and P B Varale said after perusing the records, it was satisfied that the high court had passed a "balanced" order.
Justice Sundresh observed that the High Court's July 9 order would not bring the party's day-to-day operations to a complete halt. "Upon perusing the records, including the impugned order, we are satisfied that the high court has passed a balanced order. The main writ petitions are pending consideration before the High Court. Any discussions on merit will have a bearing on the pending writ petitions. As we are satisfied that the interim orders passed take care of the parties, we are not inclined to interfere in both the matters," the bench said.
The Banerjee-led faction of the party had challenged the Calcutta High Court's July 20 order restricting the operation of its three HDFC Bank accounts. However, the High Court had allowed the party to use funds from the accounts for its day-to-day expenses and appointed a special officer to oversee the expenditure.
ED freezes Rs 440 crore in TMC-linked bank accounts
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen the three bank accounts, with balances totalling Rs 440.42 crore, in connection with its money-laundering probe arising out of an FIR lodged by the West Bengal Police over alleged dishonest financial transactions, unlawful collection of money and routing of suspected funds through certain accounts of the TMC.
The ED has claimed to have approximately Rs 440 crore in three HDFC Bank accounts belonging to the TMC. According to the ED, this action is related to an investigation into certain fund transfers.
The investigation alleges that funds were transferred to Carewell Aviation India and a company linked to it between April 2023 and June 2026. According to the allegations, the transactions were linked to the purchase of an aircraft and a helicopter.
On July 7, the ED froze a total of six bank accounts, including the three accounts linked to the TMC.
On June 18, 2026, West Bengal MLA Biswanath Das lodged a complaint with the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police, alleging that funds had been transferred to the three HDFC Bank accounts through illicit proceeds and suspicious financial transactions. An FIR was subsequently registered in the case, following which the ED filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) on June 23.
Following its investigation and searches, the ED froze the bank accounts on July 7. The TMC opposed the action, calling the freezing of the accounts arbitrary and lacking sufficient grounds. However, the Calcutta High Court declined to allow the accounts to be fully operational for the time being.
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