Calcutta HC rebukes bank authorities for freezing Abhishek Banerjee’s accounts

Kolkata: A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday rebuked the bank authorities for imposing debit restrictions on the account of Abhishek Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress general secretary and the party’s Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha member, on apparently flimsy grounds.

Another round of hearing in the matter will be conducted in the second half of Thursday, when the bank authorities will have to explain their view on their decision to impose debit restrictions on his bank accounts

Earlier this week, Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, approached Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao accusing the bank authorities of imposing debit restrictions on his bank account before his US tour for ophthalmic treatment, which was cleared by the Supreme Court earlier this month.

In his petition, Banerjee’s counsel also accused the bank authorities of blocking two of his credit cards.

The matter came up for hearing in the first half of Thursday, and the bank authorities first informed the court that the debit restrictions were imposed for KYC (Know Your Customer) updating purposes.

Banerjee’s counsel Ayan Bhattacharya informed the court that while the debit restrictions were imposed and the two credit cards were blocked without giving prior intimation to his client, the ground of KYC updating was flimsy since the current KYC term is supposed to expire in December.

Thereafter, Justice Rao questioned the bank’s counsel as to why it was necessary for the Diamond Harbour MP to be physically present at the bank when KYC updating could be done online.

The bank’s counsel then claimed that the bank had some internal problems, and that was the reason why the Diamond Harbour MP was asked to be present at the bank to update his KYC.

However, Justice Rao was not satisfied with the explanation and observed that imposing debit restrictions without prior intimation was not acceptable.

Thereafter, the bank’s counsel came out with another explanation, saying that since Abhishek Banerjee’s name, phone number and other documents were involved in a case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the KYC updating was required and the bank authorities were not in a position to divulge details in the open court.

This explanation further irked Justice Rao, and he told the bank’s counsel not to change his line of argument on the reason for KYC updating. Thereafter, he said that the matter will be heard again in the second half of the day and the bank authorities will be required to clarify their stand in the matter then.

IANS