ED freezes TMC bank deposits worth Rs 440 crore under PMLA

The Enforcement Directorate has frozen TMC bank deposits worth Rs 440 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act following searches linked to an alleged fund misappropriation case. The agency claims funds were routed through private companies for the purchase of aviation assets

Kolkata/New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has issued orders to freeze the TMC’s bank deposits worth Rs 440 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), following searches in a funds misappropriation case, officials said on Wednesday.

There was no immediate response from the Trinamool Congress.

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The orders were issued under Section 17(1-A) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The amount of Rs 440.42 crore is held in three private bank accounts of the All India Trinamool Congress, the officials said.

Five premises in Kolkata were raided on Tuesday, including those belonging to the Carewell Group of Companies, which also operates a private jet and charter hiring entity named Carewell Aviation.

A response from the Kolkata-based non-scheduled aircraft operator to a PTI query was awaited at the time of filing this story.

According to the officials, the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) preliminary investigation found that about Rs 160 crore was transferred from the TMC’s bank accounts to Carewell Aviation India Pvt Ltd and its related entity between April 2023 and June 2026.

The company is alleged to have further routed Rs 82.96 crore between 2023 and 2026 to another newly incorporated entity. It was found that a “significant” amount was transferred to this entity. Out of this, Rs 112 crore was used to purchase an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet and an AgustaWestland 109SP helicopter, the officials said.

These two flying assets were “rented” to the TMC, which was recently ousted from power in West Bengal by the BJP.

Last month, Kolkata Police froze debit operations on these three bank accounts based on complaints from the TMC’s rebel MLAs seeking a probe into the source of the funds, amid an ongoing bitter internal battle over control of the party’s war chest.

On July 2, the Calcutta High Court, while hearing a petition filed by the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the TMC challenging the debit freeze on the party’s bank accounts, directed the private bank authorities to disclose the corpus held in those accounts.