CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking the transfer of a disproportionate assets case against DMK leader Anitha R Radhakrishnan and his family members from the principal sessions and district court in Thoothukudi to the special court for PMLA cases in Madurai where a money laundering case against former minister is pending.
The court also upheld the December 11, 2025, order of the principal sessions and district court rejecting the same plea of the central agency. The first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan noted that the ED’s petition was premature, since the special court has not taken cognizance of the money-laundering complaint and cannot presently do so in the absence of the sanction required under Section 197(1) of CrPC.
Senior counsel Abudukumar Rajaratnam appeared for the former minister. The bench said if the case is transferred, it would cause real prejudice to the accused and serve no object of the statute. However, it directed the Thoothukudi court to expedite the trial.
Pointing out that a similar plea was rejected by the Thoothukudi court, but the ED had preferred not to appeal, it questioned the propriety of the second attempt to secure the outcome which was denied earlier. The bench pointed out that when 79 prosecution witnesses and 312 exhibits have been examined and marked, both sides have closed their evidence, and the prosecution has completed its arguments, transferring the case on the verge of conclusion “would simply delay” it at the Thoothukudi court.
It may be recalled that DVAC had registered the DA case in 2019 alleging amassing `2.07 crore assets disproportionate to known sources of income during 2001-06 when Anitha Radhakrishnan was holding the portfolio of Housing and Urban Development in the then AIADMK government.