Madras HC adjourns drug 'kingpin' Jaffer Sadiq's plea challenging ED's arrest order

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of a plea moved by alleged drug kingpin and expelled DMK functionary Jaffer Sadiq seeking to quash the arrest order issued against him by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).

A division bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice Sunder Mohan heard the petition moved by Jaffer Sadiq, who is also a film producer.

The counsel representing Jaffer submitted that since his client was granted bail in the drug case, the Prisoner Transit (PT) warrant issued against him had become infructuous. Hence, the arrest order issued by the ED is illegal, said the counsel.

After the submission, the bench directed the ED to file a counter and posted the matter to July 31.

Jaffer Sadiq was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in March this year for smuggling pseudoephedrine to Australia and New Zealand. He was then sent to the Tihar Central Prison in New Delhi.

Later, the Enforcement Directorate booked him on June 26 in a money laundering case connected to the narcotics case. The ED then issued a PT warrant and produced Sadiq before the principal sessions court in Chennai.

Subsequently, on July 16, the sessions court allowed the ED to take Sadiq under custody to interrogate him regarding the money laundering case.

Meanwhile, the Delhi court had recently given him bail in the narcotics case.