NEW DELHI: The Calcutta High Court has appointed a special officer to manage the day-to-day expenses of the Mamata Banerjee-aligned Trinamool Congress from three bank accounts whose debit operations were frozen after a police complaint alleged that they held proceeds of crime.
Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya named retired Calcutta High Court judge Subrata Talukdar as special officer to oversee such expenses till September 30. The court also allowed the party to use the accounts for day-to-day spending and legal expenses, while making it clear that the arrangement is only to run the political party and will remain subject to further orders.
The complaint was lodged on June 18 at the Cyber Crime Police Station under the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate. It alleged that three TMC accounts in a private bank were repositories of proceeds of crime and sought action from the police. An FIR was registered and the three accounts were made debit-frozen the next day. The complaint was filed by leaders of another TMC faction led by party MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha.
The court said any two authorised signatories of the three accounts may present a cheque before the special officer, who will then place it before the bank for encashment. On the petitioner’s plea, the court also allowed payments towards legal expenditure of the Mamata Banerjee-aligned TMC and a monthly honorarium of Rs 1.25 lakh for the special officer from the same accounts till September 30.
