The Madras High Court, on Friday (June 20, 2025) stayed all further proceedings to be taken by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) against film producer Akash Baskaran and his businessman friend Vikram Ravindran in connection with the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC) money laundering probe.
A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and V. Laksminarayanan granted the interim stay after being prima facie satisfied that an authorisation issued by a Joint Director of ED on May 15 and the consequential search and seizure operations at their residences and office was “wholly without authority or jurisdiction.”
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The judges went through the ED records produced before the court in a sealed cover and found no incriminating information or material, connecting the two writ petitioners with the TASMAC money laundering case, was available with them when the authorisation for search and seizure was issued by the Joint Director on May 15, 2025.
“It would be suffice to state that the so called information produced by the Directorate before us had absolutely no semblance of information which may have led them to believe that the petitioners may be involved in the offence of money laundering. In the light of the above observations, there shall be an order of interim stay,” the Bench added.
