ED to intervene in plea to quash CBI case booked against K.N. Nehru’s brother

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Tuesday sought to intervene and object to a plea made by Municipal Administration Minister K.N. Nehru’s brother and True Value Homes (TVH) promoter N. Ravichandran to quash a charge sheet filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in an alleged bank fraud case.

Appearing before Justice M. Nirmal Kumar, ED Special Public Prosecutor N. Ramesh said that the agency had conducted an independent probe, on the basis of the CBI’s case, for the charge of money laundering and wanted to place those materials in order to assist the court in taking a decision on Mr. Ravichandran’s quash plea.

Senior counsel N.R. Elango and Vikram Choudhary, representing Mr. Ravichandran and TVH, objected to the intervention by the ED and contended that the latter was neither a complainant nor the victim in the CBI case and therefore, it had no locus standi whatsoever to intervene in the present quash proceedings.

Mr. Elango insisted that before permitting the ED to intervene in the present quash petition, the court must lay a pre-condition to give an undertaking that the agency will drop the money laundering probe against the petitioners if the High Court eventually quashes the case booked by the CBI on merits.

“The conduct of ED is that they play into the hands of their political masters. What they are doing is a political act, not a legal act. It is impermissible in law, which even they know very well, but to satisfy their political masters, they are doing this. It is unfortunate. This should not happen before a constitutional court,” he said.

Mr. Choudhary wanted to know whether the ED would permit the local police to intervene and assist the court in money laundering cases. He said that the ED must be asked to file a proper petition for intervening in the present proceedings and it should not be allowed to do so on the basis of oral requests.

On the other hand, Mr. Ramesh denied all charges levelled against the ED and said, the agency had intervened in umpteen number of such cases. “I don’t know why they are afraid of ED intervening in this case,” he said and sought time to file a petition to intervene.

CBI Special Public Prosecutor K. Srinivasan too sought time to file a counter affidavit to the quash petition and left it to the court to take a call on the ED’s plea to intervene in the proceedings. After hearing all of them, the judge granted time till June 12 for the filing of the intervening petition.

In the meantime, he extended an interim stay, originally granted by the High Court on December 11, 2024, on all further proceedings pending before an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court at Egmore in Chennai pursuant to the filing of the charge sheet by the CBI.

Justice N. Seshasayee (since retired) had granted the stay after taking note that though the CBI had booked the case against the quash petitioners for cheating Indian Overseas Bank to the tune of ₹30 crore, the petitioners had repaid ₹51.26 crore and settled the loan fully.