Madras HC halts ED proceedings against Tasmacin liquor scam

CHENNAI: Taking umbrage at the manner in which ED raided the headquarters of Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac), which monopolises liquor purchase and sale in the state, Madras HC has restrained the agency from proceeding with the probe till Tuesday.

"We do not dispute the powers of the agency, but the manner in which such powers are exercised," a division bench of Justices M S Ramesh and N Senthilkumar said, adding that Tasmac did not even know why ED officials barged into their premises for a search. The agency should have at least informed Tasmac of the reason for the search, said the judges.

The interim oral direction to ED to put on hold all proceedings related to the searches till Tuesday was passed after Tasmac alleged its entire staff, including women, was detained for inquiry for over 60 hours.

Quoting a Bombay HC ruling, the bench said such searches should be conducted during daytime, not at midnight. "Is it not alarming to go into a premises and not allow the entire staff to leave?" it wondered.

Additional solicitor general ARL Sundaresan, representing ED, submitted that no one was detained and the staff was allowed to leave. To this, advocate general P S Raman said he could furnish CCTV footage with timestamps to prove officers and employees were restrained from leaving the premises.

The court directed ED to file its response to Tasmac's allegations by Monday, and directed the advocate general to produce copies of CCTV footage to prove the allegations.

The matter pertains to searches conducted by ED for three days (March 6-8) at about 20 locations based on various cases registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act.