NEW DELHI/CHENNAI : Amid continuous high-profile raids by the Enforcement Directorate over the alleged Rs 1,000 crore scam in the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac), the Tamil Nadu government has knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court against the order of the Madras High Court that gave a free hand to the agency in the probe.
“The matter will be taken up for hearing in two or three days,” a senior Supreme Court registry official told TNIE. Sources, however, remained tight-lipped about the grounds on which the High Court order is being challenged.
The state has filed its appeal against the April 23 order of Justices SM Subramaniam and K Rajasekar of the Madras HC, dismissing the petitions filed by the state government and Tasmac against the raids conducted from April 6 to 8 at multiple places, including Tasmac headquarters.
The bench termed the allegations and complaints against Tasmac as grave in nature and said they warrant deeper investigation.
While rejecting the argument that officials, including women staff, of the liquor marketing corporation were subjected to harassment by the agency by detaining them till late in the night during the searches, the bench said such action could have been taken to prevent leakage of information and prevent destruction of evidence.
The court also rapped the state for using women officers and employees as shields to prevent the ED from proceeding with the probe and said the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution is subject to reasonable restrictions.
Significantly, the HC said that it cannot issue an omnibus order to the ED to produce a copy of the reasons to believe perpetration of generation of proceeds of crime and money laundering.
Conducted raids based on solid information: ED
Stating that economic offences are “crimes against the nation”, the court said complaints of money laundering shall have to be probed without any hurdles.The ED maintained that it proceeded under the PMLA based on solid information and the 41 FIRs registered by the DVAC against Tasmac officials and employees.
In a press release, the ED had earlier said that it had unearthed evidence showing large-scale irregularities and generation of illicit money to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore through fraudulent transactions by breweries and bottling units, which was later used as kickbacks to secure contracts in Tasmac.
The appeal is not the first time Tamil Nadu has approached the apex court in the issue. It had on April 4 moved the SC seeking transfer of its petition against the recent searches by the ED from the Madras HC to another HC outside the state.
However, on April 8, it withdrew the pleas from the SC. The Madras HC had also rapped the state government and Tasmac for approaching the apex court, while the case was being heard by it, without sharing the information with the HC.
