The Calcutta High Court on Thursday sought a report on the corpus/ amounts lying in the frozen bank accounts of All India Trinamool Congress' (TMC).
Justice Saugata Bhattacharya also questioned the hot haste with which accounts were frozen by the West Bengal Police.
"FIR was registered at 18:00 hours, and next day bank is writing to petitioner (TMC) that accounts are debit freezed (sic). It is passing through the mind of the court that, in hot haste, why this entire thing was done?" Justice Bhattacharya remarked.
The Court was hearing a petition filed by TMC challenging the debit freeze on the bank accounts.
The accounts were frozen by the Bidhannagar police on a complaint raising allegations of fund diversion.
During the hearing of the matter, the Court also suggested that it could allow de-freeze of the bank accounts, provided that it is operated under the supervision of court-appointed special officers.
Such officers, who could be retired High Court judges, could ensure that the accounts are only used for day-to-day expenses and not major operations, Justice Bhattacharya suggested.
This arrangement could continue while the police continues its investigation into a complaint alleging that funds were siphoned off from the TMC bank accounts, the Court noted.
It is passing through the mind of the court that, in hot haste, why this entire thing was done?Calcutta High Court
Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, representing the police, urged the Court defer passing any such interim order for now. SG Mehta requested time to place on record the material collected by the investigation agency, which he said may shock the Court.
Senior Advocate Neeraj Kishan Kaul, representing a rebel TMC MLA who filed the complaint alleging siphoning of TMC funds, supported Mehta's request.
Kaul also questioned whether the petition was actually filed by the true TMC, given that there were two rival factions now. He argued that the petition itself was not maintainable since it was yet to be determined whether the petitioners are from the real TMC.
Representing TMC, Senior Advocates Kishore Datta and AM Singhvi vehemently opposed such a stance and urged the Court to grant interim relief, while questioning whether the State police could paralyse a political party's functioning by freezing its funds.
Datta argued that the bank account freeze went beyond the police's property seizure powers under Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). Singvi added that the acts by the police were political.
"Larger consideration is this. 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 running party by freezing its lifeline or funds and rendering a field non-level?" Singhvi asked.
The Court orally observed that there were some concerns about the "hot haste" with which the accounts were frozen.
"What is troubling this court, Mr Mehta, this complaint was lodged on June 18, 2026. See the timing. Complaint on June 18 - you will find majority of the complaint is omnibus in nature. There is no specific incident, not any organisation, person indicated as accused," Justice Bhattacharya remarked.
The Court eventually refrained from ordering the de-freeze of the TMC accounts for now, and confined to seeking a report on the amounts lying in the frozen accounts by July 7. The case will be heard next on July 8.
TMC is currently grappling with internal divisions following its recent defeat in the State Assembly polls. The action against the party’s bank accounts was taken following a complaint made by rebel TMC MLA Biswanath Das. TMC has argued that complaint was bereft of any material particulars and made baseless allegations of large-scale financial fraud.
Das himself contested and won the recent assembly polls from Jaynagar constituency on a TMC ticket and was paid ₹25 lakh from the same bank accounts, as per the TMC.
“This shows the completely baseless, mala fide and motivated nature of the complaint,” the TMC's plea said.
As per the petition, the police, without conducting any preliminary inquiry into the complaint, proceeded to order coercive measures against the party’s bank accounts. The police action has severely disrupted the party functioning, it was contended.
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