Madras HC stays ED probe in TASMAC case

THE STAY ORDER WAS ISSUED IN RESPONSE TO PLEA FILED BY FILM PRODUCER AKASH BASKARAN AND BUSINESSMAN VIKRAM RAVINDRAN

- Press Trust of India

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Friday stayed all further proceedings, pursuant to the Enforcement Directorate's authorisation to conduct search and seizure, against film producer Akash Baskaran and businessman Vikram Ravindran in the alleged ₹1,000 crore TASMAC money laundering case.

A division bench comprising justices MS Ramesh and V Lakshminarayanan granted the interim stay on the petitions filed by Baskaran and Ravindran challenging the Enforcement Directorate's action.

Senior counsels Vijay Narayanan and Abudukumar submitted that the petitioners had no involvement with the TASMAC operations at all.

Moreover, in the alleged 41 FIRs lodged by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) for the scheduled offences, no independent allegation or predicate offence was registered against the petitioners, said the senior counsels.

They therefore questioned the validity of the invocation of Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).