CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has dismissed a petition seeking directions to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to register a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against state BJP chief Nainar Nagenthran and the party’s former organisation secretary Kesava Vinayagam for allegedly laundering money for distributing cash to voters in Tirunelveli during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan on Tuesday said similar petitions seeking ED probe against seven former AIADMK ministers were dismissed by the court already, and similar orders will be passed in this petition also.
DMK MP R Girirajan, in his petition, had recalled that Rs 3.98 crore was seized from three persons, having links to Nagenthran, on a train at Tambaram on April 6, 2024. A case was registered by the Tambaram police, and later it was transferred to CB-CID.
The alleged act of transporting money for distribution to voters at the instance of Nainar Nagenthran and Kesava Vinayagam constitute scheduled offence under PMLA and the materials collected during the probe disclosed commission of serious cognisable offences including conspiracy and cheating, thereby attracting provisions relating to proceeds of crime, he said.
He alleged that despite the existence of clear materials indicating the generation and use of proceeds of crime, the ED had failed to register an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) due to extraneous considerations, including political factors, thereby defeating the very object of the Act.