Calcutta High Court on Thursday questioned the “hot haste” with which the bank accounts held by the All India Trinamool Congress were frozen by the Bengal police.
“FIR was registered at 6pm and next day bank is writing to petitioner [Trinamool] that accounts are debt freezed. It is passing through the mind of the court that, in hot haste, why this entire thing was done,” Justice Saugata Bhattacharya observed, as reported by legal news websites.
The high court has sought a report on the corpus of funds lying in the frozen bank accounts of the Trinamool, whose symbol and assets are now disputed following two separate splits at the Bengal Assembly and both Houses of Parliament.
The court was hearing a petition, filed by the Trinamool faction loyal Mamata Banerjee, challenging the debit freeze. The Bidhananagar police had put in a debit-freeze on the bank accounts held by Bengal’s former ruling party following a complaint of alleged fund diversion.
The high court’s observation came on the same day when the leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Ritabrata Banerjee, who pulled a coup against Mamata, met the full bench of the Election Commission in New Delhi’s Nirvachan Sadan to stake claim on the party’s name and symbol.
The police complaint based on which the Trinamool’s bank accounts were frozen was filed by rebel Trinamool MLA from Joynagar, Biswanath Das.
The court suggested that it could allow de-freeze of the bank accounts on condition of the banking operations being conducted under the supervision of court-appointed special officers, who could be retired high court judges.
The operation of the accounts would be allowed only for daily expenses and not large transactions.
The court also said the arrangement could continue alongside the police investigation into the funds-embezzlement complaint.
Solicitor-general Tushar Mehta, appearing on behalf of the police, urged the court not to pass any interim order and sought time for the police to submit more material on record, which he said may shock the court.
Senior advocate Neeraj Kaul, representing the rebel MLA Das, argued the petition was not maintainable since the “real” Trinamool was yet to be determined.
Senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kishore Dutta, appearing on behalf of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool, questioned whether the state police could stop a political party’s functioning by freezing bank accounts; they sought interim relief.
“Issue is where a level playing field and political parties and political associations are the basis of democracy – can a friendly police force paralyse a party by freezing its lifeline or funds and rendering a field non-level?” Singhvi asked.
Citing the rebel MLA, the petitioners said he had received Rs. 25 lakh for contesting the polls. “This shows the completely baseless, mala fide and motivated nature of the complaint,” the plea states.
The petitioners said the police proceeded to order coercive measures against the bank accounts without conducting any preliminary inquiry and disrupted the functioning of the party.
Symbol fight in Delhi
Ritabrata Banerjee, who met chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and other election commissioners in New Delhi on Thursday, said the majority of Trinamool leaders were with their faction.
“Majority of the MLAs, councillors and zilla parishad members are with us. We held a convention and as per procedure approached the Election Commission. We have submitted all the documents required by the Election Commission. This is a collective fight against an individual cult and the hijacking of a grassroots party by a chartered bureaucrat,” Banerjee said.
Mamata-loyalist and Dum Dum Lok Sabha MP Saugata Roy questioned how the CEC could meet a rebel faction that was not authorised by the parent party.
“We [those loyal to Mamata] did not seek any appointment with the Election Commission. How could the rebels get a meeting with the full bench of the commission? We will decide who on behalf of the party are authorised to meet the central poll panel officials. Can any independent MLA meet chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar? Is there any precedence? There is an impeachment notice pending against him. Amit Shah is running the EC,” Roy said.