Trinamool Bank Accounts With Rs 440 Crore Frozen Over Money Laundering Probe

Three bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress, holding deposits worth Rs 440 crore, have been frozen under the anti-money laundering law, the Enforcement Directorate has said. An amount of Rs 440.42 crore was there in the three HDFC bank accounts of the Trinamool Congress, the ED said in a statement. The agency alleged that large-scale suspicious financial transactions were carried out from the party funds, which are being investigated in connection with money laundering and misuse of funds.There was no immediate response from the political party.The agency had raided five locations in Delhi-NCR in connection with the case. All the locations were said to be linked to the Carewell Group of Companies, which operates in the aviation sector.According to the investigating agency, preliminary investigation has revealed that between April 2023 and June 2026, about Rs 160 crore was transferred from Trinamool's accounts to Carewell Aviation India Private Limited and another company associated with it.The agency claimed that after this, Carewell Aviation sent about Rs 82.96 crore to the accounts of a newly formed related company. During the investigation, the agency came to know that a large part of the money was used to purchase Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and Agusta 109 SP helicopter. According to ED, a total of Rs 112 crore was spent on the purchase of these two.The investigating agency also says that some foreign funding was also used in the purchase of an Agusta helicopter, while most of the money came directly from Trinamool accounts. The Enforcement Directorate is now trying to find the source of this foreign funding and whether any rules were violated in it.The agency said despite the purchases, the aircraft were given on rent to the Trinamool and huge amounts of money were again transferred for their "use". Officials said the entire financial structure is highly suspicious and may have been designed to hide the real transactions and beneficiaries.Currently the ED is thoroughly investigating the source of money, use of funds, foreign funding and transactions between all the companies concerned. The agency said that further action can be taken based on the investigation.