CHENNAI: A vacation bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday stayed the operation of an order of March 23 last of the Appellate Tribunal, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, New Delhi, directing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to release `3.63 crore attached/seized from two Mumbai-based companies, in which Sukesh Chandrasekhar is allegedly involved.
A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and R Mahadevan granted the injunction while entertaining an appeal from the Joint Director of Enforcement Directorate in Chennai. The stay will be in operation for four weeks.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar had been arrested last month for his alleged involvement in assisting AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran to bribe the Election Commission officials to obtain party’s ‘Two Leaves’ symbol to V K Sasikala faction.
Originally, on a complaint from Canara Bank, Central Crime branch on March 19, 2013 had registered an FIR against a bank official and two directors of Future Techniks Pvt. Ltd for cheating the bank to the tune of ` 19.21 crore. During investigation, the involvement of Sukesh Chandrasekar was found in the case. He was arrested by Delhi police and Chennai police in a joint operation in July/August 2013 in Delhi.
Bank accounts of several companies were attached which included Mangal Royal Jewels and Mangal Bullion in Mumbai.
Aggrieved, Meghraj Jain and Ajit Jain, directors of these companies filed appeals and the Appellate Tribunal in its interim order on March 23 had directed the ED to release `3.63 crore out of `4.61 crore to the two companies. Challenging this order, the ED had filed the present appeal.