Orders reserved on TTV’s plea in FERA case

Justice MV Muralidharan on hearing arguments put forth by additional solicitor general G Rajagopalan on behalf of the Enforcement Directorate and senior counsel B Kumar on behalf Dhinakaran on Thursday reserved his orders without mentioning a date. However, he said that the interim stay on the trial will continue till the orders are pronounced in the case. 

Rajagopal had contended that the petitioner was merely resorting to filling vexatious petitions at every stage of the proceeding in a bid to drag the case. 

Seeking the court to consider the seriousness of the case, he submitted that in the civil proceedings on the same issue, the court had imposed penalty on the petitioner for FERA violation. Now, to delay the criminal proceedings under trial such petitions are being filed, the additional solicitor general said. However, senior counsel Kumar argued that the reasons for not furnishing the documents ought to be given or else it would be a bolt on Article 21 of the Constitution, which deals with right to life and personal liberty. 

It may be noted that the Enforcement Directorate filed a counter seeking to vacate the interim stay granted by the High Court on March 7. They had contended that the documents demanded by the accused like case diary cannot be provided to him as there is a bar in sharing such documents under the CrPC. 

Pointing out that the Magistrate was right in rejecting the demand as those are official communications between government departments, the counter noted that the accused has failed to establish the need to call for such documents, especially the correspondence between ED and DVAC regarding the case against former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, which had nothing to do with the case against him as she is neither an accused nor a witness in the case.