The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to interfere with a Calcutta High Court order refusing interim permission to the Trinamool Congress to operate three bank accounts frozen by the Enforcement Directorate, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and PB Varale said that the High Court had passed a “balanced” order after taking note of the fact that the party had sufficient funds to run its day-to-day affairs. The court also said that since related proceedings, including a petition concerning a freeze ordered by the West Bengal Police, were pending before the High Court, it would not be appropriate to discuss the merits of the case.

On July 20, the High Court had on July 20 refused to allow the TMC to operate three bank accounts frozen by the ED. The party had approached the High Court challenging the probe agency’s action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The case pertains to alleged financial irregularities, unlawful collection of money and routing of suspected funds through certain bank accounts of the TMC.

On June 19, the Kolkata Police froze debit operations on the accounts, a day after rebel TMC MLA Biswanath Das filed a complaint alleging that funds had been misused.

On July 8, the ED said that it had frozen three bank accounts of the TMC, holding deposits worth Rs 440 crore.

The agency claimed that around Rs 160 crore was transferred from the party’s bank accounts to Carewell Aviation India Private Limited and a related company between April 2023 and June 2026.

Carewell Aviation then transferred around Rs 83 crore to another related entity, which was used to buy an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and an Agusta 109 Grand New helicopter, the ED claimed. It alleged that Rs 112 crore was spent on the purchases.

On July 9, another bench of the High Court had passed a separate order regarding the same bank accounts, permitting the TMC to use the funds for day-to-day operations under the supervision of a special officer till September 30. This order related to the freeze imposed by the West Bengal Police.

After the party sought relief from the Supreme Court, it asked the ED on August 3 a limited amount from the frozen accounts could be released to a court-appointed administrator to meet the TMC’s daily expenses.

To this, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju had responded that Rs 164 crore was not attached and was already available. The TMC had disputed Raju’s statement, with its lawyers Kapil Sibal and Menaka Guruswamy saying the party could not use the money because the accounts remained frozen.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

We welcome your comments at letters@scroll.in.