ED freezes TMC's Rs 440-cr worth bank deposits under PMLA

📌 Summary:

• Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze three HDFC Bank accounts of the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) holding deposits of Rs 440.42 crore under Section 17(1-A) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002

• Action followed search operations at five premises in and around Kolkata belonging to the Carewell group of companies, which operates in the aviation sector

• Probe is based on an FIR by the Cyber Police, Bidhannagar (West Bengal), alleging dishonest financial dealings, unlawful collection of money and routing of suspect funds through AITC bank accounts

• ED probe found ~Rs 160 crore transferred from AITC accounts to Carewell Aviation India Pvt Ltd and a related entity, mostly between April 2023 and June 2026

• Rs 82.96 crore was routed to a newly incorporated related entity to buy an Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft and an Agusta 109 GrandNew helicopter (total Rs 112 crore used); USD 1.7 million was arranged as an unsecured loan from a Cayman Islands-based entity in 2023 for the helicopter

• The aircraft bought from AITC's own corpus were then rented back to AITC, with substantial amounts transferred as 'usage charges' — a circular arrangement now under investigation to ascertain the beneficial purpose

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 Internal Security (money laundering) and GS2 polity — misuse of political-party funds, ED's search-and-freeze powers under PMLA, offshore (Cayman Islands) routing of funds

📝 Prelims Facts:

• PMLA was enacted in 2002; ED enforces it under the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance

• Section 17(1-A) of PMLA empowers the ED to freeze property/bank accounts during a search where seizure is not practicable

• Political parties are not exempt from PMLA proceedings

🔑 Key Term: Section 17(1-A), PMLA — provision allowing the ED to freeze money/property found during a search, pending adjudication, when physical seizure is not practicable