Tasmac case: ED assistant director tenders apology to Madras high court

CHENNAI: Enforcement Directorate assistant director Vikas Kumar on Monday tendered an unconditional apology to the Madras high court in response to the contempt of court proceedings initiated against him for having issued summons to film producer Aakash Baskaran even after the court had stayed the ED proceedings.A division bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice V Lakshminarayanan also summoned the ED's adjudicating authority chairperson Pradeep Kumar Upadhyay and administrative officer Nasreen Siddique to appear in court on Jan 19, after their counsel said they had not received the notices so far.The case pertains to the ED searches at the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) for suspected irregularities in procurement and sale of liquor. The agency carried out the searches in May at the offices and houses of film producer Akash Baskaran and businessman Vikram Ravindran as part of the investigation into the suspected irregularities in Tasmac operations and sealed their premises. The duo approached the court and questioned the agency’s authority to do so. In June, the high court ordered an interim stay on the agency to proceed further in the case. However, ED issued summons to Akash Baskaran for interrogation in connection with the evidence seized at his properties.Akash Baskaran filed a contempt petition before the court saying ED had violated the court's order, and notices were issued to senior ED officials. When the case came up for hearing last week, a division bench of Justice MS Ramesh and Justice V Lakshminarayanan questioned the absence of the senior ED official for the hearing of the case.While counsel for the ED submitted that the presence of the ED officials had been dispensed with by the court, the bench cited that the personal appearance was spared due to the pendency of ED's appeal in the Supreme Court and said relaxation was no longer valid as the Supreme Court had rejected the ED's appeal.When the case came up for hearing before the division bench on Monday, Enforcement Directorate's assistant director Vikas Kumar appeared in person before the bench and tendered an unconditional apology.