Freeze on Abhishek Banerjee’s account lifted; Calcutta HC has word of advice for bank

Kolkata: The bank, which had imposed debit restrictions on the personal bank account of Trinamool Congress general secretary and Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee, informed the Calcutta High Court on Monday that the freeze has been lifted and his debit and cards have been reactivated.

Banerjee, the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, had approached the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao accusing the bank authorities of freezing his personal account and blocking his debit and credit cards without informing him and that too just before his scheduled US trip for ophthalmic treatment as permitted by the Supreme Court earlier this month.

As the matter came up for hearing on Monday, the bank authorities informed Justice Rao’s bench that the debit transactions were imposed and debit and credit cards were earlier blocked because of pending KYC (Know Your Customer) updating.

Now, with the KYC being updated, the debit restrictions have been lifted, and the debit and credit cards of the Diamond Harbour MP have been reactivated, the bank authorities informed the court.

The lawyer for the bank also informed the court that Banerjee’s account was temporarily frozen and the bank authorities did not take that step intentionally.

According to the bank’s counsel, Banerjee’s name was involved in another case and after receiving that news, the account was frozen for some time as per normal procedure, and now it has been made operational again. After hearing the bank’s argument, Justice Rao disposed of the case.

At the end of the hearing, Justice Rao issued an advice to the bank authorities to always inform the concerned customer before imposing debit restrictions on a bank account. Justice Rao also advised that this practice should be followed not only for Abhishek Banerjee, but for any customer.

Justice Rao also advised the bank authorities to update the customer in advance about the reason for imposing debit restrictions.

IANS