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Synopsis

The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed the plea seeking action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 over seizure of Rs 3.99 crore from three train passengers at Tambaram and Rs 28.5 lakh from DMK office, earlier this month.

The division bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and Sunder Mohan passed the order after the counsel for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) submitted that the alleged offences related to the seizure of Rs 3.99 crore by the Tamil Nadu police did not fall under the scheduled offences provided in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. Thus, the ED wouldn't have jurisdiction to investigate the matter.

On April 4, from the office of the DMK's Tirunelveli East district secretary Rs 28.5 lakh was seized and on April 7, Rs 3.99 crore was confiscated from three train passengers at Tambaram railway station in Chennai. 

On the last date of hearing in the matter, the high court had direct the ED to file response to the plea.

Court had noted that the local FIR had been registered under Sections 171C, 171E and 171F and 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

Court had pointed out that these offences were not scheduled offences under the PMLA Act, therefore, on a preliminary assessment, there did not appear to be any reason for invoking the PMLA.

However, it had asked the counsel for the ED to obtain detailed instructions from the ED.

The plea was filed by CM Raghavan, an independent candidate for the Tirunelveli Parliamentary constituency. Alleging that the confiscated money was meant for distributing to voters, he sought direction to the ED to take action against BJP candidate Nainar Nagendran and Congress candidate C. Robert Bruce.

Raghavan's counsel had informed the court that the three passengers from whom Rs 3.99 crore was seized were close associates of the BJP candidate of the Tirunelveli constituency. Likewise, he had argued that the Rs 28.5 lakh seized from a DMK office-bearer was allegedly intended for bribing voters in support of the Congress candidate in the Tirunelveli constituency.