Madras High Court Dismisses Plea To Initiate PMLA Proceedings Against BJP And Congress Candidates In Tirunelveli

A bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice Sunder Mohan dismissed the plea after noting that the offences alleged did not constitute scheduled offences warranting prosecution under the Act. A detailed order is expected soon.

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

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.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Mad) 168

Case Title: CM Raghavan v The Joint Director and others

Case No: WP 10931 of 2024