A complaint letter has been submitted by dissident Trinamool MLAs, who wrote to Bidhannagar Police Station demanding a probe into the funds in the bank account of the Trinamool Congress and urged an enquiry.
The account holds deposits worth Rs 675 crore, sources said. LoP of the dissident group, Ritabrata Banerjee, said, “Whether the funds in the bank account are sourced from cut money and extortion cannot be ascertained. So, our MLAs have sent a letter to the police.” The LoP has 64 MLAs under their opposition bloc, all of whom are dissidents.
Notably, former Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee had announced an organisational reshuffle on June 5 following the Assembly election defeat, naming former MP Subhasish Chakraborty as the new treasurer in place of Aroop Biswas. The letter by Biswas, written on June 12, was seen by ET.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, under Mamata Banerjee, said, “If the party MLAs have pointed out any anomalies or found any irregularities in the fund, they should have informed the party supremo. They have submitted a letter to the police—though is their priority seeking legal action or putting the party in trouble?”
Another senior party leader from the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool told ET, “The MLA who wrote to the bank may have acted to save himself. However, if he has sent the letter after the change in organisation, his letter will not be valid.”
LoP Ritabrata Banerjee said, “The money in the account may be sourced from cut money or corruption, and may have been used for chartered flights. Our MLAs have lodged a complaint that it should be probed. Our MLAs have lodged an FIR in writing.”Letter by Aroop Biswas
Aroop Biswas wrote in the letter that, in connection with “the present dispute regarding the authority and control of the organisation, I have a strong and bona fide apprehension that the aforesaid signed cheques, if presently in circulation or in the custody of persons whose authority is under dispute, may be misused or presented for encashment without proper authorisation.”
“There therefore exists a real and imminent risk of unauthorised transactions being carried out through the aforesaid account. In these circumstances, any transaction undertaken during the pendency of the dispute may give rise to further complications and expose both the organisation and me, as its Treasurer, to unwarranted liability and prejudice,” he mentioned in the letter.
He also pointed out that “urgent and immediate precautionary measures” were required and requested the private bank’s Central Plaza branch “that no transactions be permitted in the said account until the dispute is duly resolved by the competent authority. This request is made bona fide and solely with a view to safeguarding the funds of the organisation and preventing any unauthorised or disputed operation of the account, and further solely as a protective measure to preserve the funds of the organisation and prevent any unauthorised or disputed operation of the account.”
In another development, the Calcutta HC has given an order upholding the Bengal Assembly Speaker’s decision accepting Ritabrata Banerjee as LoP, which was challenged at a higher bench.
