Money Laundering: Kerala High Court Stays Single Judge Order Directing ED Probe Against Ebrahim Kunju For 2 Weeks

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday issued an interim stay on the single bench decision that had directed the Enforcement Directorate to probe into the allegations that a cash deposit of Rs 10 crores was made during demonetisation into the current account of a newspaper daily called Chandrika, where he was the Chairman of the governing body. 

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly admitted the appeal and issued the stay to be operative for a period of two weeks.

The appeal argued that such a direction would force him to face investigation despite him having no nexus with the allegations.

It was argued that the Governing body was only an advisory committee constituted by the Chairman and managing director, only to promote the circulation of the newspaper., and that there are similar governing bodies in other units.

The direction to the ED was alleged to have resulted in severe prejudice and the appellant argued that this direction was illegal.

The appellant sought to quash the Single Judge's order directing the ED probe on numerous grounds including lack of opportunity to present his case in the writ petition.

Senior counsel A.L Somayaji was instructed by Advocate Biju Varghese Abraham in the matter on behalf of the appellant.