'Fishing expedition' — Madras HC order staying ED summons to 5 district collectors in Tamil Nadu

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New Delhi: The Madras High Court Tuesday temporarily stayed the operation of summons issued by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to five district collectors in Tamil Nadu, observing that the move appeared to be part of a fishing expedition by the central agency to find out whether a scheduled offence had been committed, instead of probing a scheduled offence already registered...

Before the Madras High Court, the ED has alleged that the state government was attempting to shield the accused in the case.. While granting an interim stay on the operation of the summons, a bench comprising justices S.S. Sundar and Sunder Mohan observed, It is just an attempt to investigate the possibility of identifying any proceeds of crime as a result of any criminal activity, which is not so far registered by the state agencies...

By this impugned summons, the respondent ventures into a fishing expedition to find out whether informations and evidence collected from the district administration can be processed further from other sources to find out commission of scheduled offence so that the respondent may then identify the proceeds of crime which will help them to proceed under the PMLA, 2002, the court added...

In this context, the court said that EDs probe in the case appeared to be not in relation to the proceeds of crime but to find out whether any scheduled offence related to money laundering was committed..

From these queries, the court inferred that the EDs probe was not in relation to existing proceeds of crime, but to find out whether a scheduled offence has been committed in the district...

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