Madras HC refuses MP Kathir Anand's plea seeking copy of documents seized in Vellore college raid
Special public prosecutor for ED, N Ramesh submitted that the petition became infructuous as the agency had already de-sealed the server room on January 7.
DMK Lok Sabha member Kathir Anand; Madras High Court
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has dismissed DMK leader Kathir Anand's plea seeking to provide a copy of the documents seized by the ED from Kingston Engineering College, where he serves as a chairman, and directed the MP to cooperate with the enforcement agency.
A division bench of Justice SM Subramaniam and Justice N Jothiraman heard the petition preferred by Kathir Anand seeking to unseal the college's server room.
Senior counsel P Wilson, who appeared for the petitioner, submitted that the server is essential for the college management, and they are not able to take administrative actions for the college since the Directorate of Enforcement sealed it.
He said that the college students have been undergoing exams since December, and access to the server is necessary to monitor and verify their attendance, payment of tuition and examination fees, and other administrative processes.
The activities of the college have come to a standstill, and the students who are preparing for the exams are under pressure as access to the server is denied, and the ED has seized the hard disks, the senior counsel added and sought the court to direct the enforcement agency to serve the copy of the documents seized from the institution.
N Ramesh, the special public prosecutor for the ED, submitted that the petition became infructuous as the agency had already unsealed the server room on January 7. He also claimed that the college management has not been cooperating with the agency while conducting the search on the college premises. He said the officials were made to wait for several hours to open the server room and had to bring in carpenters to break open the door to proceed with the search.
He added that the day-to-day affairs of college management and students would not be affected as the ED, with the help of computer forensic experts, had narrowed it down to two of the nine servers and seized hard disks from computers related to the college's accounts.
The ED seized unaccounted money of Rs 1.99 crore and Rs 75 lakh from the accounts and chairman's offices, respectively, hence, the seizure of tally hard disk, the PP added.
After the submissions, the bench opined that neither the students nor the management were disturbed by ED's search and seizure and directed the college administration to cooperate with the enforcement agency per the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The Enforcement Directorate searched Kingston Engineering College in Vellore, where Minister Duraimurugan's son Kathir Anand holds the chairman post. After two days of search, the ED seized Rs 2.74 crore and hard disks, and further sealed the server room. Aggrieved by this, Kathir Anand moved the petition to unseal the server room.