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Synopsis

The Madras High Court on Monday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to file response to a petition 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 directed the ED counsel to obtain instructions by April 24.

Court noted that prima facie there seemed no basis for PMLA invocation based on local police FIR.

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. 

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

Court 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 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 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 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.

[Source: The Hindu]