Why summon babus when you can just seek info: Madras High Court to ED

CHENNAI: The Madras HC questioned on Monday the rationale behind the ED issuing summonses to five district collectors of Tamil Nadu in the illegal sand mining case instead of just seeking the information required of these senior IAS officers.

“If you (ED) needed information, you could have asked for it,” the division bench of Justices S S Sundar and Sunder Mohan said. The court will decide on Tuesday petitions filed by Tamil Nadu and five collectors challenging the summonses. The ED had issued notices to 10 district collectors.

Pointing out that the central agency had commenced its probe into the sand mining case based on four FIRs registered by the state government, the court said, “You are asking for details of all mining sites in all districts. How can you do that? You are entitled to ask for details pertaining to only those four FIRs.”

The court was informed that the total sale value of illegally mined sand in the past two years was Rs 4,730 crore, as against the recorded revenue of Rs 36.45 crore.

This is less than 1% of the actual revenue generated from illicit sand mining, said additional solicitor general A R L Sundaresan, representing the ED. On the government’s contention that the ED has surpassed its jurisdiction as illegal sand mining is not a scheduled offence under the PMLA, Sundaresan said the FIRs mention other offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC (cheating and murder), all of which are scheduled offences.

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