CHENNAI: A special CBI court in Chennai rejected the bail petitions moved by alleged drug kingpin Jaffer Sadiq and his brother Mohammed Saleem, stating that there were sufficient documents available to show that they were prima facie guilty of charges levelled against them.
In its December 19 order, the court flagged the possibility of the accused absconding if released on bail to reject their plea. The court also cited interest of national economy and justice to dismiss the bail petitions.
Sadiq, an expelled DMK functionary, is in jail for the last five months after being arrested first by the Narcotics Control Bureau and then by the Enforcement Directorate.
Sadiq countered ED’s charges stating that the NCB and the ED have not provided any evidence to link him to the three drug trafficking cases cited as predicate offences. The three cases are NCB’s case in 2024, Chennai Customs case in 2015, and Mumbai Customs case in 2018 where his alleged associates were booked for illegal export of the controlled substances.
Even if the ED’s allegations are taken on their face value, the unexplained cash deposits in accounts linked to him would only fall under the jurisdiction of the income tax department and not under the ED, Sadiq said in his bail petition.
Citing details from ED’s chargesheet, special public prosecutor N Ramesh rejected Sadiq’s contentions and said that the investigation had revealed that Sadiq and Saleem had been involved in international drug trafficking and funnelled the huge proceeds of the crime into ventures like real estate, film production and logistics business which served as fronts to project the funds as untainted. Totally 237 consignments containing drugs were exported through six entities in the name of benamis, the ED said.
No link to Sadiq: Textbook corporation contractor
Chennai: Sri Appu Direct, a contractor of the TN Textbook corporation, has issued a statement denying any business links to Sadiq. The contractor’s response comes after TNIE reported on the ED investigation on Sadiq’s alleged money laundering, wherein one of his firms Coalescence Ventures had business dealings with Sri Appu Direct, through Green Cosmic Infra. The latter is an entity of Sadiq’s business partner Ramesh, ED said. Their business dealings were only with Green Cosmic Infra and that no fund from Coalescence ventures were used for procuring goods required for TN Textbook Corporation, Sri Appu Direct said.