The Calcutta High Court refused interim relief to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), declining to unfreeze three bank accounts frozen by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering probe linked to the alleged purchase of an aircraft and a helicopter.
The Calcutta High Court refused to grant the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) interim relief in its plea against the Enforcement Directorate’s move to freeze three of the party’s bank accounts.
The bench declined to allow the party access to the funds, which were frozen as part of an ongoing money-laundering probe tied to alleged financial dealings involving the purchase of an aircraft and a helicopter.
According to the ED, the investigation centres on suspected fund transfers to Carewell Aviation India and a related entity between April 2023 and June 2026, being examined under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
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TMC had moved the High Court seeking protection from the account freeze and access to the funds, after the ED’s directive came despite an earlier, more favourable order from a different bench of the same court concerning a separate freeze initiated by West Bengal Police.
That earlier freeze stemmed from a complaint by dissident TMC legislator Biswanath Das, who accused the party of misusing its funds. Acting on this complaint, Bidhannagar Police had ordered the accounts frozen.
The High Court later stepped in and allowed TMC limited access to the accounts, subject to certain judicial conditions.
Subsequently, the ED issued its own freeze order under anti-money laundering law, leading the party to return to court this time challenging the ED’s action and asking to be allowed to operate the accounts while the case was pending. TMC argued that the freeze had crippled its ability to carry out organisational and political functions.
The ED pushed back, citing the active investigation into the fund movements and its statutory authority under PMLA.
Having heard both sides, the High Court declined to permit TMC to operate the accounts, meaning they remain frozen under the ED’s order.
The case highlights broader questions about how far the ED’s powers extend in provisionally freezing assets during money-laundering probes, and about the limits of judicial intervention at the interim stage of such matters. It also adds a new chapter to the wider dispute over TMC’s bank accounts, which have now faced separate freezing actions one from state police, another from the ED.