Overview
- The single-judge bench led by Justice Saugata Bhattacharya on Thursday directed the private bank to file an affidavit stating the corpus in the frozen Trinamool Congress accounts and asked investigators to place probe materials before the court.
- The court declined immediate interim relief to unfreeze the accounts and said it will not probe the truth of the criminal allegations at this stage but must first see the evidence that prompted the rapid freeze.
- Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court the agency has collected material alleging funds were siphoned and asked time to file records, warning those documents may 'shock the Court's conscience'.
- Parties differ on scope and scale: petitioners say three accounts holding about Rs 440 crore were frozen, while lawyers for the Kalighat faction and some reports have claimed the freeze was later extended to more accounts.
- The bench floated allowing the accounts to operate under supervision by retired judges as special officers and set deadlines for filings, with the bank and police directed to submit affidavits and reports by July 7 and the matter listed for further hearing on July 8.