The Madras high court on Friday ordered an interim stay on the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons to three Tamil Nadu contractors in an alleged illegal sand mining case, days after it granted similar relief to five district collectors in the matter, according to a person aware of the developments.
A division bench of justices SS Sundar and Sunder Mohan granted the stay while hearing separate petitions filed by the contractors – A Rajkumar, Shanmugam Ramachandran and K Rethinam – against the ED summons issued to them in December under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
“The judges have granted an interim stay on the operation of summons,” a special public prosecutor representing ED told HT on condition of anonymity.
The detailed order of the court is yet to be released.
According to ED, which began its probe in September, the sale value from illegal sand mining in the state in 2021 and 2022 amounted to ₹4,730 crore, as against the state’s recorded revenue of ₹36 crore.
On November 17, ED summoned the district collectors of Ariyalur, Karur, Vellore, Thanjavur and Trichy for information on the matter and asked them to appear in person on various dates with their Aadhaar cards.
On behalf of the collectors, the state government moved the high court and sought quashing of the summons, calling it unreasonable and in violation of the PMLA and the Constitution.
{{/usCountry}}On behalf of the collectors, the state government moved the high court and sought quashing of the summons, calling it unreasonable and in violation of the PMLA and the Constitution.
{{/usCountry}}On November 28, the high court stayed the summons but allowed the federal agency to proceed with its probe.
In their petition, the three contractors said they were issued the summons even though they were not named in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) – equivalent to a first information report (FIR) – filed by ED last September.
The contractors also said that the summons issued last December did not specify if they were to be questioned as suspects or witnesses.
The trio further cited the relief that was granted by the high court to the five district collectors, who were also summoned by the federal agency.
In the court, ED has argued that the probe is in its early stage and the three contractors must cooperate with the federal agency.