Madras High Court Seeks ED's Response On Plea To Initiate PMLA Proceedings Against BJP And Congress Candidates In Tirunelveli

Though the bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice Sunder Mohan prima facie opined that the offences alleged were not scheduled offences and did not warrant action under the PMLA, it asked ED to respond to the plea by April 24.

The petition was filed by one CM Raghavan, an independent candidate from Tirunelveli constituency seeking directions to the ED to register a case against Nagendran and Bruce.

Raghavan had argued that on April 7, an amount of Rs. 3.99 crore was seized from three train passengers at the Tambaram Railway Station and these persons were found to be close associates of Nainar Nagendran. He further argued that the amount of Rs. 28.5 lakh seized from the office of the DMK Tirunelveli East Secretary on April 4 was meant to be distributed to voters in favour of Robert Bruce. Thus, Raghavan insisted on proceeding against both the candidates under the PMLA.

ED however informed the court that the FIR had been registered against the candidates for offences under Section 171C, 171E and 171F and 188 IPC which were not scheduled offences under the PMLA warranting any action. ED however sought time to respond to the plea and the case was adjourned accordingly.

Case Title: CM Raghavan v The Joint Director and others

Case No: WP 10931 of 2024