CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has dismissed the petitions filed by Minister for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Anitha R Radhakrishnan praying for quashing the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) by following the trails of a disproportionate assets (DA) case filed by Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC). A division bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam passed the orders dismissing the petitions on Wednesday and vacated the interim stay granted in 2022 against the ED probe.
ED registered the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) in 2020 on the basis of the FIR registered against Radhakrishnan by the DVAC for amassing wealth to the tune of Rs 2.01 crore during his tenure as a minister in the then AIADMK government during 2001-06. Following the registration of the ECIR, the agency attached properties worth Rs 6.50 crore.
Challenging the ED’s action, he approached the HC stating that the agency had no jurisdiction to register the ECIR and probe the offence of money laundering as possession of unaccounted money itself does not amount to possession of proceeds of crime.
However, the bench rejected this contention and gave the green signal for ED to go ahead with the proceedings. Additional Solicitor General AR L Sundaresan, assisted by special public prosecutor N Ramesh, appeared for ED.