Kochi: The Kerala High Court has permitted the Directorate of Enforcement to go ahead with the proceedings initiated by it against lottery agent Santiago Martin. Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar, however, ordered that the authorities should consider the question of jurisdiction raised by Martin against the proceedings after giving him an opportunity of hearing.
The court made it clear that if the provisional attachment orders were confirmed by the adjudicating authority, overruling the objections of Martin, further proceeding under the Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act shall not be initiated without further orders from the court. The court was considering a petition filed by Martin against the notice issued by the Adjudicating Authority asking him to show cause why the attached properties shall not be confirmed.
Senior counsel M.K. Damodaran appearing for Martin opposed the move to attach the properties. The CBI had found Martin guilty of the offences alleged against him in seven out of 23 cases and filed a composite final report. The prosecution case is that the accused conspired with unknown officials of the government of Sikkim and violated the provisions of Lotteries (Regulation) Act, 1998 and the Lotteries (Regulation) Rules 2010.
Appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, K.M. Nataraj, Additional Solicitor-General of India (South zone), submitted that the writ petition was not maintainable. Santiago Martin could have moved the appellate tribunal under the PML Act against the order of the Adjudicating Authority instead of filing a writ petition before the High Court.
Besides, the Adjudicating Authority had the power to invalidate the provisional attachment order if the property attached was not involved in money laundering activities. However, Martin argued that there was no prohibition by the state government or the central government on the sale of Sikkim lottery at the time of initiation of proceedings by the Enforcement Directorate. The crime was registered in 2011.
