CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to ‘put on hold’ all proceedings related to the searches conducted in TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) offices concerning an alleged liquor scam.
A division bench of Justice M S Ramesh and Justice N Senthilkumar passed the oral order after TASMAC alleged that its entire staff, including women, were detained for inquiry for over 60 hours.
“We do not dispute the powers of the agency, but the manner in which such powers are exercised,” the bench said. They claimed that TASMAC did not even know the reason why the ED barged into their premises for a search. The court stated that the ED should have at least informed TASMAC of the reason for the search.
As pointed out by the Bombay High Court in a recent judgment, such searches should be conducted during the daytime, not at midnight, the judges added. “Is it not alarming to go into a premises and not allow the entire staff to leave?” the court wondered.
Representing the ED, Additional Solicitor General A R L Sundaresan submitted that no one was held captive and that the staff were allowed to leave. Recording the submissions, the court directed the ED to file its response to the allegations of TASMAC by Monday. The court also directed Advocate-General P S Raman to produce copies of CCTV footage of TASMAC offices with timestamps to prove the allegations.
The issue pertains to searches conducted by the ED for three days at around 20 locations, including the TASMAC headquarters. Following the raid, the ED released a report stating that the searches were based on various cases registered under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.
A report released by the ED claimed that TASMAC paid Rs 100 crore annually to transport corporations and that over Rs 1,000 crore of unaccounted money may have circulated through TASMAC due to these irregularities. Opposing the allegations, TASMAC filed three petitions seeking to prevent the ED from taking action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) without the state govt’s consent.
TASMAC wanted the court to prohibit the ED from harassing TASMAC officials or employees under the guise of investigation and to declare the ED’s recent raids (from March 6 to March 8) and the seizure of documents as illegal.