Verdict on case against ED raids in TASMAC to be delivered tomorrow
The Madras High Court said that the verdict in the case filed by Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) against the raids conducted by the Enforcement Directorate in its offices will be delivered on April 23 (Wednesday).
A division bench comprising justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar, after hearing the elaborate arguments in the three writ petitions filed by TASMAC and the state government, seeking to declare the search and seizure operations, by the ED, as illegal, reserved the orders for Wednesday.
Advocate Vikas Singh appearing for TASMAC argued that the ED had no jurisdiction to conduct searches at TASMAC headquarters in Chennai. He called it a complete abuse of power.
“In a normal investigation, it should be the other way round. There is a case registered, you start an investigation on that. Here, it is the opposite. ED decides, they collect FIRs and then start an investigation. This is a unique case where ED does not even confirm the predicate offence. This is why a rejoinder is important, will show how bogus this case is. These FIRs are at the district manager level, nothing to do with head office. These are depot managers, too small a fry. The jurisdiction for ED to step in is not there in this case. I am not for once trying to argue that lordships should get into merits of the allegations. I am only saying the facts of this case is so brazen, that ED had no jurisdiction to enter the State of Tamil Nadu,” he argued.
The Advocate General during his arguments said if the central agency is allowed unchecked then it would do the same with other state-owned undertakings. “They would then end up scouting for materials to implicate higher authorities of such institutions, thereby directly challenging the federal character of the country. “
Accusing the ED officials of indulging in human rights violations by detaining the women staff beyond midnight in the name of enquiry during the search operations, AG accused the ED for not seeking the assistance of the State government before the start of the raids.
ED’s counsel and Additional Solicitor general Raju denied the accusations and refuted claims of any harassment of the TASMAC staff during the enquiry. He said the operations were “warranted and justified to unearth the money laundering activities.”