Kochi: Kerala High Court on Thursday reserved its orders on controversial businessman Santiago Martin's plea challenging the attachment notice issued by Joint Director, Directorate of Enforcement, Cochin Zonal office under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Unfazed by the controversies surrounding the impropriety in the Chief Minister's legal advisor appearing for an accused in the lottery case, senior counsel M.K. Damodaran appeared for Santiago Martin.
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 for the sale of Sikkim lottery at the tie of initiation of proceedings by the enforcement directorate. The crime was registered in 2011. The Lotteries (Regulation) Act is not a scheduled offence under the PML Act. Any proceedings for violation of Lotteries Act are absolutely irrelevant and form no basis for any proceedings under PML Act. Hence, the enforcement directorate has no authority to initiate proceedings. After completing the hearing of counsel, Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar reserved his orders in the case.
