The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen balances worth ₹440 crore in three bank accounts of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the agency said on Wednesday.
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An order under Section 17(1A) of the PMLA was issued to freeze the funds lying in three accounts maintained by the Mamata Banerjee-led party with HDFC Bank.
The development comes a day after the agency raided properties linked to a flight charter firm in and around Kolkata as part of its investigation into allegedly suspicious transactions from the TMC’s bank accounts.
“ED Kolkata Zonal Office has conducted search operations at five premises in and around Kolkata under the provisions of the PMLA, belonging to the Carewell Group of companies operating in the aviation sector. During the searches, balances amounting to ₹440.42 crore lying in three HDFC Bank accounts of AITC have been frozen under Section 17(1A) of the PMLA,” the ED said in a statement.
The agency’s statement added that the investigation revealed that around ₹160 crore (approx) was transferred from AITC bank accounts to Carewell Aviation India Pvt. Ltd. and its related entity, mostly between April 2023 and June 2026.
“It is further revealed that Carewell Aviation Pvt. Ltd. routed an amount of ₹82.96 crore during 2023–2026 to another newly incorporated related entity for purchasing an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and an Agusta 109 Grand New helicopter. An amount of ₹112 crore was used for making the said purchases. It is also revealed that an amount of USD 1.7 million was arranged as an unsecured loan in the year 2023 from one Cayman Islands-based entity to purchase the said helicopter,” the ED added in its statement.
It further said that the Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and Agusta helicopter were subsequently rented out to AITC itself, even though they were purchased from the corpus of AITC.
“Thereafter, substantial amounts were transferred on the pretext of aircraft usage. The above stated dubious arrangement is under investigation to ascertain the actual beneficial purpose of the transactions,” the agency said.
Derek O’Brien, a Rajya Sabha MP and a leader in the Mamata Banerjee camp, told HT on Tuesday that the allegations were politically motivated.
“Another cynically choreographed assault on a political rival, using every agency brazenly like a BJP branch office: ED, CBI, EC, IT and more,” he said.
