Kolkata:
Even as Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress grapples with a massive rebellion and questions over her authority, the party’s finances have now come under scrutiny.
West Bengal Police have sought transaction statements for the past five years from a Kolkata-based bank for three accounts belonging to the Trinamool Congress.
The move follows a complaint lodged last Thursday at the Bidhannagar Cyber Crime Police Station by a Trinamool MLA from South 24 Parganas, said to be a close associate of rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee.
Investigators have sought details on when these bank accounts were opened, the documents used to open them, and the names of the account holders. They have requested statements for the three accounts covering the last five years to trace the sources of funds and the amounts deposited.
The action follows allegations of suspicious transactions and the deposit of ‘cut money’ into the Trinamool accounts.
After the police complaint was registered, the bank was directed to freeze all financial transactions to and from the three accounts.
According to police sources, the three accounts at a Sarat Bose Road branch in Kolkata hold approximately Rs 440 crore.
However, a PIL was filed in the Calcutta High Court on Monday challenging the freezing of the three Trinamool Congress bank accounts.
The Calcutta High Court has granted permission to file the PIL. The petitioner has sought to know how the bank accounts were frozen. The date of the hearing has not been fixed yet.
Interestingly, before the police received the complaint from the rebel camp MLA, former Trinamool minister Aroop Biswas had written to the bank requesting it to suspend all transactions in those accounts.
Although Biswas identified himself as the Trinamool Congress treasurer in a letter to the bank dated June 12, Trinamool Congress (pro-Mamata) spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said Biswas no longer holds the post.
