The Madras High Court has reserved orders on individual writ petitions filed by Tamil Nadu Minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise V. Senthilbalaji and two others urging the court to quash the summons issued to them by the Enforcement Directorate on April 29 and declare as illegal and unconstitutional the investigation initiated against them for their alleged involvement in money laundering.
Justices T. Raja and K. Kumaresh Babu deferred their verdict after hearing arguments advanced by senior counsel C. Aryama Sundaram, Siddharth Luthra and Sriram Panchu for the writ petitioners and Additional Solicitor-General R. Sankaranarayanan for the Enforcement Directorate. Apart from the Minister, the co-accused B. Shanmugam and R.V. Ashok Kumar had approached the court with a similar prayer.
When Mr. Shanmugam’s writ petition was listed for admission during the summer vacation on May 6, a different Division Bench had granted an interim injunction, restraining the Enforcement Directorate from proceeding with the investigation for four weeks after Mr. Panchu pointed out that his client was not being served copies of certain documents relied upon by the investigating agency. Subsequently, the interim orders were extended periodically.
