Sekhar Reddy moves HC to quash money laundering case
TNN | Updated: Nov 11, 2017, 08:04 IST
CHENNAI: Sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy and his associate Srinivasulu have approached the Madras high court to quash the enforcement directorate (ED) proceedings under Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act. The matter is pending before the principal sessions court in Chennai. Admitting their plea, Justice M S Ramesh has directed the ED to file their reply by two weeks.
The criminal proceedings were initiated by the ED under PMLA, after income tax department seized 34 crore unaccounted money in new denomination notes of 2,000 and gold worth several crore in December 2016.
According to the petitioners, though no offence had been made out against them, ED, without following any due procedure of law and relying on the investigations done by the other agencies, initiated criminal proceedings under PML Act. Claiming that the case is vitiated, illegal and void, they submitted that the complaint filed by the ED was without jurisdiction, premature and ultra vires the provisions the Act.
"The CBI is yet to either identify the involvement of the alleged bank officials or prima facie make out an offence or file a charge sheet for the allegations of conversion of the old currency notes into the new denomination notes," they said. Asserting that they had not indulged in conversion of old currency notes into new currency notes, they added that even otherwise it is not an offence declared under any law.
CHENNAI: Sand mining baron Sekhar Reddy and his associate Srinivasulu have approached the Madras high court to quash the enforcement directorate (ED) proceedings under Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act. The matter is pending before the principal sessions court in Chennai. Admitting their plea, Justice M S Ramesh has directed the ED to file their reply by two weeks.
The criminal proceedings were initiated by the ED under PMLA, after income tax department seized 34 crore unaccounted money in new denomination notes of 2,000 and gold worth several crore in December 2016.
According to the petitioners, though no offence had been made out against them, ED, without following any due procedure of law and relying on the investigations done by the other agencies, initiated criminal proceedings under PML Act. Claiming that the case is vitiated, illegal and void, they submitted that the complaint filed by the ED was without jurisdiction, premature and ultra vires the provisions the Act.
"The CBI is yet to either identify the involvement of the alleged bank officials or prima facie make out an offence or file a charge sheet for the allegations of conversion of the old currency notes into the new denomination notes," they said. Asserting that they had not indulged in conversion of old currency notes into new currency notes, they added that even otherwise it is not an offence declared under any law.
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