Madras High Court Today (April 23) upheld ED’s raids on TASMAC over a Rs 1,000 crore scam, rejecting claims of political bias. The Court said money laundering hurts the nation and minor inconveniences can’t stop justice.
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CHENNAI: The Madras High Court today said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on the TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) office between March 6 and March 8 were legal.
The Court dismissed the cases filed by the Tamil Nadu State Government and TASMAC that questioned these raids.
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The Bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and K Rajasekar ruled that they would not examine whether these searches were done with political motives.
“Court cannot go into whether ED search is politically motivated. Are courts the place to decide this? Court can only examine materials before it,”
-the judges clearly said.
They added that the offence of money laundering is a serious crime that affects the whole country. Just because some employees were troubled during the raids is not enough reason to stop such investigations.
“The offence of money laundering is a crime against people of nation… employees sent home at odd hours highly disproportionate… search conducted in benefit of nation… a few inconveniences, when equated against (economic justice)… legislations such as PMLA serve this purpose (economic justice) ….”
This case is related to ED raids at the TASMAC headquarters. The ED believed that TASMAC staff were involved in corrupt practices like charging more than the real price of liquor, fixing tenders wrongly, and taking bribes. According to reports, these wrong actions led to financial losses of over Rs 1,000 crores.
The ED based their raids on serious complaints mentioned in about 41 to 46 FIRs (First Information Reports), which were filed by the Tamil Nadu government or TASMAC itself over several years. These FIRs pointed to money laundering activities.
But the ruling DMK government and TASMAC said that ED had no right to conduct the raids and called them illegal. They also said that ED used its powers wrongly and harassed employees during the searches. They complained that TASMAC employees were kept for more than 60 hours in the name of questioning and searches.
Senior lawyers Vikram Chaudhary and Vikas Singh represented TASMAC in court, and Tamil Nadu’s Advocate General PS Raman appeared for the State.
ALSO READ: Madras High Court Urges Tamil Nadu Government to Cooperate with ED in TASMAC Probe
On the other side, the ED’s case was strongly supported by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju. He said that there was no harassment and that the raids were necessary to find the truth behind suspected money laundering.
The case was first heard by Justices MS Ramesh and N Senthilkumar. On March 20, this Bench said that ED should stop any forceful action for now. The Bench also showed concern over claims that TASMAC staff were held for more than 60 hours.
Soon after, both Justices Ramesh and Senthilkumar stepped away from the case. Then, Justices Subramaniam and Rajasekar started hearing the matter.
ALSO READ: Madras High Court: “TASMAC Claims ED Crossed Jurisdiction Boundaries, Violating PMLA”
Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu government approached the Supreme Court, asking to shift the case there after the first judges stepped down. But later, they decided to withdraw that request when the Supreme Court said it did not support the transfer.
In the end, the Madras High Court clearly said that the ED raids were legal and dismissed all the objections by the State and TASMAC. The Court said that fighting money laundering is important for protecting the economy and people of the country.
CASE TITLE:
Case Title: Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Ltd TASMAC v. Directorate of Enforcement
WP 10348/ 2025
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