HC extends interim stay in PMLA case against minister Anitha

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday extended an interim stay on a case booked against Fisheries and Animal Husbandry minister Anitha R Radhakrishnan under the Prevention of Money Laundry Act by the Enforcement Directorate till July 28. Justice N Sathish Kumar passed the direction after hearing the submissions of the minister saying that he has to file his response for the counter filed by the ED. Anitha Radhakrishnan prayed for a direction to quash the ED proceedings. The minister submitted that it was a scheduled offense and the ED filed the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA, 2002. “While Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was invoked in the case, it was considered as the scheduled offense under the PMLA. The PMLA had come into force only in 2005 and the predicate offense was during the period 2001 to 2006. Therefore, the provisions of the Act were invoked retrospectively,” the petitioner’s counsel submitted. The case is pertaining to the charges made by the DVAC that when Anitha Radhakrishnan served as an MLA and housing minister from 2002 to 2006, his family members and he had acquired wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. While the matter was pending before the principal sessions and district judge, Thoothukkudi, the ED registered ECIR in December 2020, on the premise that the offenses alleged in the DVAC FIR are scheduled offenses under the PMLA.