CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has quashed the money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against N Ravichandran, brother of Tamil Nadu Minister for Municipal Administration and Water Supply, KN Nehru.
A division bench comprising Justices MS Ramesh and V Lakshminarayanan passed the orders on Thursday by allowing the petition filed by Ravichandran, True Value Homes (India) Private Limited, TVH Energy Resource Private Limited and others, seeking to quash the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered by the ED on 27 September, 2024, based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case over alleged diversion of loan funds.
Considering the fact that the predicate offence case was quashed by a single judge of the court on the grounds that no crime was committed in the alleged diversion of funds and that no public officials were involved, the division bench ordered the quashing of the ECIR.
The ED had conducted raids at several premises, including those belonging to Nehru, his son and Lok Sabha Member KN Arun Nehru, and his brother Ravichandran from 7 to 9 April, 2025, which caused ripples in political circles. The raids were based on the CBI case registered in 2021.
Senior counsel Vijay Narayan, assisted by Abishek Jenasenan and Aparajitha Vishwanath, submitted that the central agency was engaged in a “fishing expedition” to proceed against the petitioners and conduct the searches without possessing material evidence to support the offence of money laundering.
He also argued that the money laundering proceedings were not sustainable since the predicate offence had been closed, and therefore the ECIR should be quashed.
The origin of the case lies in the 2021 FIR registered by the CBI, based on a complaint lodged by the Chief Regional Manager of Indian Overseas Bank. It was alleged that Ravichandran had availed a loan of ₹30 crore in 2013 in the name of Truedom EPC India Private Limited but had defaulted in repayment.
However, this case, which was pending before the special court for CBI cases, was quashed by a single judge of the High Court on 7 July, 2025. The contention of the petitioners was that no loss was incurred by the borrower-bank, as the loan amount along with interest was repaid as part of a one-time settlement.
