ED raids on Tasmac: Madras HC judges recuse from hearing case further

cleared - mani
Chennai: A division bench of Madras high court, which had disapproved of the manner the ED raided the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) for suspected irregularities in liquor procurement and sale and then halted the central agency's probe, has recused itself from hearing the case further.
On Tuesday, when the case came up for further hearing, a division bench of Justice M S Ramesh and Justice N Senthilkumar directed the registry to list the pleas moved by TASMAC before another coordinate bench.
Earlier, describing the three-day search conducted by the ED at the Tasmac headquarters as not only unlawful but inhumane, Tasmac submitted that the search was in complete disregard to the dignity of its staff and violation of basic human rights. It alleged that its entire staff, including women, were detained for inquiry for over 60 hours. As the ED disputed the claim, advocate-general P S Raman offered to furnish CCTV footage to prove the illegal detention of Tasmac officials.
Producing copies of the CCTV footage of the search, Tasmac said S Visakan, IAS, managing director of Tasmac, who entered the office at 11.30am on March 6, was allowed to exit only at 12.08am on March 9.
Similarly, S Sangeetha, DRO, general manager, who entered at 11.04am on March 6, was allowed to leave only at 10.39pm on March 8. Another general manager, T Ramaduraimurugan, who entered the premises at 10.06am on March 6, was allowed to exit only at 12.05am on March 9, an affidavit filed by the corporation said.
Through separate affidavits, several employees of the corporation alleged that they were confined to office premises, deprived of proper rest and essential personal necessities.
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 Act.
A statement released by the ED later 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.
MSID:: 119481072 413 |