BENGALURU: The Karnataka HC has rejected the petition filed by Sudarshan Ramesh, brother of hacker Srikrishna, challenging the endorsement issued for cancellation of his passport for travelling to the Netherlands and the look out circular (LoC) against him.
“It is for the petitioner to cooperate with investigation conducted by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and to convince that he has no role to play in money laundering case registered against his brother and request for withdrawal of LoC issued against him. I do not find any merit in the writ petition and accordingly, writ petition stands rejected,” said Justice SG Pandit.
The court pointed out that during investigation, it was found that petitioner had received 50,000 pounds from Srikrishna and had transferred it to Hanish Patel, residing in UK, owner of GCP UK Ltd, in May 2021. The court also noted that the ED has made a statement before the court that petitioner has failed to furnish user name and password of temporary e-mails which were used for certain transactions. The petitioner was rightly not permitted to travel outside the country.
There is reasonable apprehension for the ED that petitioner being brother of Srikrishna is involved in acquiring the proceeds of crime and issued summons to the petitioner under Section 50 of PML Act, the court added. The court observed that ED’s apprehension that the petitioner might settle down in the Netherlands and may be unavailable for further probe has to be respected.