Supreme Court refuses Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool faction’s plea to unfreeze bank accounts

The Supreme Court on Thursday (October 1, 2026) declined a petition by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction to operate four bank accounts in public sector banks debit-frozen by the West Bengal Police.

Also Read | ED arrests close aide of ex-TMC MLA in connection to illegal land grabbing

Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice M.M. Sundresh, the petitioner faction argued that the first information reports (FIRs) related to the accounts’ freeze suffered from glaring procedural infirmities.

However, the Bench refused to entertain the petition under its appellate jurisdiction, and instead requested the Calcutta High Court to expedite the hearing of petitions filed by Ms. Banerjee’s faction challenging the FIRs.

The High Court had declined to provide the faction any interim relief on August 27 regarding the frozen bank accounts which hold over ₹800 crore in them.

For daily expenses

The High Court had reasoned that any interim order of the kind would pull the rug from under an earlier direction limiting the party’s access to its accounts only to meet daily or monthly expenses.

Earlier in August, the top court had declined to intervene in favour of the political party with regard to three other bank accounts frozen by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with a money laundering investigation.

The top court had decided not to interfere on learning that the High Court had already appointed Justice Subrata Talukdar, a former Calcutta High Court judge, as ‘Special Officer’ to facilitate the operation of the three bank accounts for incurring day-to-day/monthly expenditure to run the political party.

The money laundering probe concerned alleged transfers of funds to Carewell Aviation India and an associated entity between April 2023 and June 2026, purportedly in connection with the acquisition of an aircraft and a helicopter.