ED gave undue publicity to prejudice FERA case: Dhinakaran to court

AIADMK deputy general secretary T T V Dhinakaran on Tuesday told a court that the Enforcement Directorate had given undue publicity to "prejudice" a FERA case against him, which was denied by the central agency.

During cross-examination of a prosecution witness in the case at an Economic Offences court, Dhinakaran's counsel B Kumar told Kistoor Chand, a retired ED official that the agency had given "undue publicity about the case to embarrass and prejudice the case of the accused (Dhinakaran)".

Chand denied it and to a question that "high-profile searches by the ED was to instill fear," the witness said for the agency all searches were (the same), "ordinary".

When Dhinakaran's counsel told Chand that the AIADMK leader was assessed for income tax and it was verified and found to be correct by him, the former official said he did not remember if his income tax particulars were checked to be correct or not.

He was cross-examined for about one and a half hours before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Economic Offences) S Malarmathy and she recorded the submissions.

The witness was cross-examined on questions including those related to the income of Dhinakaran, his income tax, immovable properties, investments, and aspects covering searches and seizure.

The cross-examination will continue tomorrow.

The case of the prosecution is that Dhinakaran acquired $1,04,93,313 without the nod of the Reserve Bank of India and deposited it in the account of Dipper Investments with Barclays Bank, the United Kingdom allegedly violating FERA. The investment firm was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

The Madras High Court had allowed Dhinakaran to cross-examine PW before August 31 in the FERA violation case against him in the ACMM Court, which had framed charges against him on August one.