ED searches in TMC bank accounts funds case

Kolkata/New Delhi, Jul 7 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday conducted searches at multiple locations in Kolkata as part of an investigation linked to routing of alleged suspect funds in the bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress, officials said. They said about five premises are being covered in the capital city of West Bengal. Preliminary probe suggests that funds worth more than Rs 150 crore have been routed through aviation and travel companies, they said. Premises of Carewell Aviation and its directors and a purported electoral trust has been covered in the searches, the ED officials said. Last month, the Kolkata Police had frozen debit operations of three bank accounts of the party following complaints by rebel party MLAs seeking a probe into the source of the funds even as the bitter internal battle over control of the opposition party's financial war chest continues. These accounts are estimated to hold around Rs 440 crore. The Calcutta High Court on July 2, while hearing a petition filed by the Mamata Banerjee-led faction of the TMC, challenging the debit freeze of the party's bank accounts, directed the private bank authority to disclose the corpus held in those accounts. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will take decisions on the defections in the Trinamool Congress before the start of the Monsoon session of Parliament on July 20, sources had told PTI recently. This came after demands of the rebel MPs' disqualification by their parent parties. PTI NES/SCH DV DV