CHENNAI: An officer of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tendered unconditional apology for serving summons to film producer Akash Baskaran issued by the Adjudicating Authority, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in connection with the money laundering proceedings linking him to the alleged Tasmac scam despite the fact that the Madras High Court had “stayed all further proceedings”.
Assistant Director Vikas Kumar, on Monday, filed an affidavit tendering unconditional apology for committing the inadvertent error in serving the summons. As per the earlier directions, he appeared in person before the court.
Accepting the apology, a division bench of justices MS Ramesh and V Lakshminarayanan ‘purged’ the officer of the contempt proceedings.
However, the bench issued a fresh “statutory notice” to the Adjudicating Authority under PMLA and the Registrar of the office of the Adjudicating Authority for issuing the show cause notice even though they were intimated about the interim orders of the court staying all further proceedings. It directed them to file a reply by January 19, 2026.
The bench, initially, issued statutory notice to these two officers on October 17, and later, directed them to be present in the court. However, they did not appear.
On Monday, Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundaresan submitted that the Adjudicating Authority had stopped the action after it was informed to him about the interim stay but only the Registrar had inadvertently issued the show cause notice.
The bench refused to exempt the Adjudicating Authority from the contempt proceedings as requested by the ASG and said, “Let him come and give the explanation in the court.”