Kolkata: The ED on Tuesday carried out coordinated searches at five locations across Kolkata as part of its probe into transactions linked to Trinamool Congress’s bank accounts. The central investigating agency has claimed to have detected transactions worth more than Rs 150 crore routed through a network of aviation, travel and service companies.The searches were conducted at the office of Carewell Travels & Tours in Radhabazar near Lalbazar, the residence of the company’s owner in Salt Lake, an address in New Town and two other premises, including the office of an electoral trust.The role of Carewell Travels came to the fore when ED officials started digging into election expenses of the party. It was found that more than Rs 46 crore was spent for helicopter travel of TMC’s star campaigners in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.According to ED sources, TMC engaged three companies for air travel and other travel-related work. Apart from Carewell Travels, two other companies — Windborne Aviation and Anita Tours — were engaged for the purpose. Carewell Aviation, another company from the Carewell group, was also engaged for aircraft travels. While Rs 41 crore was paid to Windborne Aviation, nearly Rs 4.5 crore was paid to the Carewell group. ED officials are now going through at least 18 bank accounts of Trinamool.ED officials have reasons to believe that more than Rs 150 crore moved through multiple companies operating in the aviation, travel and allied service sectors. Investigators are trying to trace the origin and destination of the funds and determine whether they were layered through different entities to conceal their source.On Tuesday, the agency also searched the office of a chartered accountant in central Kolkata’s Bowbazar area. During the operation, officials seized documents and electronic devices, which are being examined to establish whether the transactions violated provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.Sources said ED is also examining allegations that funds used to hire chartered flights for senior party netas may have links with questionable financial transactions. The ED is also checking for any increase in the number of aircrafts Carewell Aviation had acquired between 2023 and 2026.The searches into Trinamool’s accounts began after a complaint was lodged last month. On June 18, an MLA from Joynagar in South 24 Parganas approached the Bidhannagar Cyber Police Station alleging that proceeds of a major cyber fraud had been transferred into certain bank accounts.MLA Biswanath Das alleged that three TMC accounts maintained with HDFC Bank’s Central Plaza branch in Kolkata together held about Rs 535 crore as on March 31, 2025, accounting for more than half of the party’s declared funds of Rs 1,018.8 crore. The balance of the party’s 18 accounts as on March 16, 2024 was Rs 403 crore while it had come down to Rs 298 core by June 2024 — after the election results came out.Police subsequently registered an FIR and directed banks to freeze debit transactions from three accounts pending an investigation. A week after this, ED joined the probe.Just days before the complaint, former TMC treasurer Aroop Biswas had cited internal disputes within the party and, in a letter to HDFC Bank, sought freezing of its bank accounts.
