The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has accused Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) of attempting to create hurdles in a legitimate investigation being done regarding potential money laundering activities involving Tasmac officials and some private entities.
In a detailed counter affidavit filed before a Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar on Tuesday, the ED questioned the maintainability of two writ petitions filed by Tasmac to declare the recent search and seizure operation carried out its headquarters as illegal.
Pointing out that Tasmac had also sought to restrain the ED from harassing its employees in the guise of investigation, the ED wondered how the corporation could file such writ petitions when no individual employee had alleged any kind of harassment or human rights violation.
After Additional Solicitors General S.V. Raju and AR.L. Sundaresan, assisted by ED Special Public Prosecutor N. Ramesh, reported that the counter affidavit had been served upon Advocate General P.S. Raman, the judges granted time till April 8 for Tasmac to file a rejoinder to the counter.
The 47-page counter affidavit, signed by ED Assistant Director Vikas Kumar, stated that TASMAC was a state-owned corporation handling huge amount of public funds with a substantial annual turnover and therefore, the investigation into money laundering charges serves larger public interest.
The officer told the court a Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) was registered based on multiple First Information Reports (FIRs) which the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) had booked against TASMAC officers and employees on charges of corruption and malpractices.
The FIRs were related to unaccounted cash found in the liquor retail vending shops and in offices of the TASMAC district managers, sale of liquor at higher prices, receipt of bribe for transfers and appointments, murky dealings between TASMAC officials and breweries for supplying liquor and so on.
Since the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988 were a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2022, the ED had carried out a search and seizure operation at TASMAC headquarters at Egmore in Chennai between March 6 and March 8, 2025, the officer said.
Stating that the entire operation was conducted in the presence of two independent witnesses who were employees of State Bank of India; the ED said, the operation was carried out in a peaceful and orderly manner without exerting any coercion, threat, inducement, promise or any other external pressure on Tasmac staff.
Mr. Kumar also contended that a search operation could not be declared illegal solely because it extended for a duration of three days. He said, all women employees were given the option of going home before nightfall. Yet, TASMAC General Manager (Administration) Sangeetha stayed back at her own free will.
The officer also said Ms. Sangeetha, Tasmac Managing Director S. Visakan and Deputy General Manager (Purchase and Sale) M. Jothi Shankar, whose statements were recorded during the search operation, had written individual letters to the ED on March 17 and 18 seeking time to submit certain documents.
“Nowhere in these letters, the above three officers of Tasmac have alleged any irregularity in the search proceedings. They have also not retracted their statements recorded under Section 17 of PMLA… The said letters sent by the three officers where no such allegations of coercion, duress, violation of any fundamental rights have been raised by the individual concerned itself shows that the present writ petitions filed on behalf of Tasmac raising alleged issues of breach of fundamental rights of the individuals, is an afterthought and an abuse of the process of law,” the ED said.
The investigating agency also asserted that the entire search and seizure proceedings were carried out in accordance with law and that enough rest was provided to the Tasmac employees with no statement of any individual having been recorded beyond a period of two and a half hours.
Since the Tamil Nadu government, along with Tasmac, too had filed a third writ petition and moved an application to amend its prayer in that petition, Mr. Sundaresan agreed to file a counter affidavit to the amendment petition too by April 8.
Published – April 01, 2025 04:38 pm IST
