CHENNAI: The Principal Sessions and Special Court for PMLA cases in Chennai on Monday remanded film producer and expelled DMK functionary Jaffer Sadiq in judicial custody for 15 days in a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The central agency brought him from the Tihar Jail, where he was locked up in a case of drug smuggling registered by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) – which arrested him on March 11 – to Chennai and produced him before the Special Court seeking his remand, as the ED has formally arrested him using a prisoner transfer (PT) warrant.
Special public prosecutor for ED N Ramesh also moved an application seeking 15 days of his custody for interrogation to ascertain the generation of the proceeds of the crime.
However, senior counsel Abudu Kumar Rajarathinam appearing for Sadiq, submitted before the court that once the ED effected the arrest on June 26 while he was in Tihar, it must have produced him before the court within 24 hours under Section 19 (3) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
This provision is a procedural safeguard under the special act but ED had failed to do so. The PT warrant has become non-est since Sadiq was released in the predicate offence case registered by the NCB, he said.
Meanwhile, the Madras High Court adjourned the petition filed by Sadiq seeking to quash the arrest order issued by the ED by two weeks.