CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday ordered assistant director of ED Vikas Kumar, the adjudicating authority under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the registrar of the office of the adjudicating authority to personally appear in the court on December 15 in connection with a contempt of court case filed by film producer Akash Baskaran for wilful disobedience of the interim orders of the court staying all further proceedings on money laundering case against him relating to the alleged Tasmac scam.
The personal appearance of the officers was ordered by a division bench of justices MS Ramesh and V Lakshminarayanan when the contempt of court case came up for hearing.
Pointing out the dismissal of a special leave petition filed by the ED against the interim orders of the division bench staying all further proceedings of money laundering and the statutory notice issued to Vikas Kumar seeking his appearance, the bench grilled special public prosecutor for ED N Ramesh over the failure of the officer’s appearance.
“The SLP was dismissed. The original statutory notice issued to him mandated his personal appearance. Why wasn’t he present in the court,” the bench questioned. Following an undertaking given by the special public prosecutor, the bench ordered the officer’s appearance on December 15.
In the meantime, the bench questioned Additional Solicitor General (ASG) ARL Sundaresan on the failure of the adjudicating authority under PMLA and the registrar of the office of the adjudicating authority.
Thirty day statutory notices were issued to them directing their personal appearance for proceeding with the adjudication process against Akash Baskaran by issuing summons to appear despite the interim order of stay.
The ASG said an ‘inadvertent error’ was committed by the registrar but further action was stopped by the adjudicating authority; and their act will not attract contempt. However, the bench directed both of them to appear on December 15.
Meanwhile, the first bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan adjourned to December 16 the hearing of a petition filed by ED seeking a direction to the DGP to register an FIR based on the communication sent by it over the alleged illegal sand mining.