CHENNAI: The Madras High Court recently dismissed a petition filed by textile chain Pothys to quash the order of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attaching a piece of land it bought from absconding don Sridhar’s wife and daughter.
The land at Melandai Vaadai, Kamaraj Street, Third Division, in the heart of Kancheepuram town next to the land owned by Pothys was bought by the latter in two instalments from Kumari, Sridhar’s wife, in 2010 and his first daughter Dhanalakshmi in February 2016.
Express had reported on March 24 that Dhanlakshmi, who had come from the UK to Chennai, had secretly sold the property to Pothys and the money was transferred to Kumari’s bank account. She later flew back to the UK after the Madras High Court quashed two lookout circular issued by the ED against her.
In a subsequent order passed in September, the ED attached the two pieces of land that is now owned by Pothys. The ED order termed the land as ill-gotten wealth of Sridhar.
It was noted that a large part of the sale consideration had been directly paid by Pothys into Kumari’s bank account. The ED noted that Kumari was a housewife and had declared her income to the Income Tax (I-T) authorities, which was not commensurate with the value of the properties held by her.
“It also appears that Sridhar is not even an I-T assessee. So the Deputy Director had sufficient reasons to believe that the properties sold by Kumari and Dhanalakshmi were fruits of the poisonous tree acquired with the proceeds of crime committed by Sridhar,” the court observed.
In their petition, Pothys had argued that the property now owned by them was not from proceeds of crime as defined by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002. However, the court dismissed Pothys arguments.