HC restrains ED from probing PMLA case against Anitha Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI: A division bench of Madras High Court on Thursday passed an interim stay barring the Directorate of Enforcement from probing a case booked against Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister Anitha Radhakrishnan under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The bench of Justice PN Prakash and Justice N Anand Venkatesh passed the interim stay on hearing the petition filed by Anitha Radhakrishnan.

The petitioner sought a direction to quash the ED’s move of attaching his properties as well as the case booked against the minister.

According to the counsel for the minister, the DVAC filed a case against his client in 2006 on charges of generating an income of Rs.2.64 crore disproportionate to his known source of income from 2001 to 2006 when he was a state minister.

"While the case was filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, the ED filed the ECIR on December 22, 2020, on the premise that the offences alleged in the DVAC FIR were scheduled offences under the PMLA, " the petitioner added.

“ED failed to note that Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act was made a part of the scheduled offences under the PMLA in June 2009. The ED sleuths did not consider the fact that it was not a scheduled offence when the Act came into force in July 2005,” the petitioner’s counsel argued.

Recording the submissions, the judges granted the interim stay for proceeding with the probe against Radhakrishnan.