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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday informed the Kerala High Court that it has withdrawn its summons against former state finance minister and CPI(M) leader Thomas Isaac and Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) official in connection with the probe in the Masala bond case.
Justice Devan Ramachandran's order accepted the petition filed by Thomas Isaac and KIIFB. The ED counsel informed the High Court that all summonses against TM Thomas Isaac and KIIFB have been withdrawn. "After nearly 2 years of legal battle, ED withdrew summons sent to KIIFB and me for violation of FEMA in issuing masala bonds. The HC also held that there cannot be a roving inquiry without clear evidence of wrongdoing. The HC has upheld my right to privacy," CPI(M) leader Thomas Isaac posted on X. "An investigation cannot be conducted to find evidence. If there is evidence, we can investigate. An inquiry may be made if there are reasonable grounds. ED cannot conduct unnecessary investigations." Kerala High Court noted. Justice Devan Ramachandran also clarified that the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate will not stand. Later, the Additional Solicitor General stated that all the summons issued by the ED were withdrawn. The ED counsel had given a hint that he was withdrawing from the KIIFB Masala bond case while considering the petition last time. Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundaresan informed the single bench that if there is no evidence, the complaint will be scrapped. The lawyer appearing for KIIFB argued, "The definition of state in Articles 12 and 273 of the Constitution is twofold. State in Article 273 means the State Government. KIIFB does not fall under this definition. So ED has no jurisdiction to investigate KIIFB. There is no criminal procedure. The CAG report was rejected by the Assembly. ED cannot investigate it. ED asked KIIFB to produce documents seven times. These are all publicly available documents." KIIFB argued that the investigation was conducted for the sake of evidence. Senior Supreme Court advocates Arvind P Datar and Jayadeep Gupta appeared for KIIFB and Thomas Isaac. TM Thomas Isaac claimed that there is no case of black money against him and if there is any violation of the Foriegn Exchange Management Act (FEMA) Act then the Reserve Bank should check it. (ANI)
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