KOLKATA — A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court, on Tuesday, rejected the plea from the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction seeking a fast-track hearing on its petition challenging the freezing of three bank accounts of the party.
Earlier this month, the authorities of the private sector commercial bank, where these three accounts are maintained, chose to freeze them following an instruction from the police.
The police directed the bank authorities to freeze these bank accounts following two developments. First, the former treasurer and ex-Minister Aroop Biswas, who currently belongs to the “rebel but majority faction” in Trinamool Congress led by expelled Ritabrata Banerjee, wrote a letter to the bank authorities requesting the freezing of the three bank accounts in apprehension of fund misappropriation.
Later, some Trinamool Congress MLAs from the “rebel but majority” faction also approached the police with the same request. Thereafter, the police directed the bank authorities to freeze the three bank accounts, in which Rs 440 crore is deposited.
Soon after that, Trinamool Congress’ faction, which is continuing with its allegiance to former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew, the party’s general secretary and Lok Sabha member, Abhishek Banerjee, approached the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya challenging the freezing of bank accounts. The Mamta faction also pleaded for a fast-track hearing in the matter.
However, on Tuesday, the single-judge bench of Justice Bhattacharya rejected the plea for a fast-track hearing and ruled that the matter would be heard as per the scheduled cause list.
On the other hand, the Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, appeared in the court on behalf of the West Bengal government in the matter. He informed the court he had received the case documents related to the matter on Monday and will be ready for a hearing on July 2.
