The Jalpaiguri circuit bench of Calcutta High Court on Wednesday ordered the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to stop its move to freeze the properties of Samsing and Bamandanga-Tondu tea estates in Jalpaiguri district.
The ruling ensures that the gardens will continue to be managed by Rittik Bhattacharya, the present owner.
The order was passed by Justice Omnarayan Rai, who quashed the ED’s directive to seize and freeze assets, including machinery and vehicles.
The ED's action had been based on its ongoing investigation into the multi-crore recruitment scam in Bengal. Prasanna Roy, a close aide to jailed former minister Partha Chatterjee and the previous owner of the two estates, is accused of investing large sums of allegedly ill-gotten money in the gardens.
Following Roy’s arrest, the ED had frozen various assets linked to him.
However, senior advocate Prabal Kumar Mukherjee, who appeared for Bhattacharya, said: “We filed a case challenging the ED’s order. The court has ruled that the ED cannot freeze the properties again as the ED had already confiscated some of the properties of the gardens.”
Following the ED’s visit to the gardens last month and the confiscation of documents, workers on both the estates had grown anxious about the plantations' future.
“We were deeply concerned about the livelihood of the workers. If the ED had taken over, there would have been uncertainty over wages and day-to-day management. We are relieved that the gardens have been restored to the present owner,” said Kailash Gope, a Trinamool Congress trade union leader.
Bhattacharya, who has been managing the estates after taking them over from Roy, said he would visit both the estates on Thursday to oversee their functioning.