Kochi: Former minister Thomas Isaac on Wednesday moved the Kerala High Court seeking the quashing of two summons issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the financial dealings of KIIFB.
“ED served me 2nd summons under FEMA for personal appearance. The roving enquiry going on against KIIFB for the last 2 years is against the spirit of orders of the SC. I have asked them to recall the summons or clarify the offence against me or KIIFB,” Isaac tweeted.
“A writ petition filed in the Hon`ble HC of Kerala seeking to restrain ED from enforcing my personal appearance before them for an offence that they are not willing to divulge. Such a fishing & roving enquiry is contrary to the spirit of decision of the Apex Court of India,” he added.
Isaac was the state Finance Minister in the first Pinarayi Vijayan government.
He said the summons is vague on the violations under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) that have been levelled against him.
Therefore, the "summons are ex-facie illegal and beyond the jurisdiction of the scope of inquiry contemplated under the FEMA since admittedly there is no violation of any provision of the said Act", Isaac claimed in his plea.
The plea also contains his reply dated August 9 to the latest ED summons for his presence before it on August 11.
During the first Pinarayi government, when Isaac handled the finance portfolio, he was also the vice-chairman of KIIFB, which comes under the state government.
Isaac had failed to appear for questioning on July 19 claiming he had another committment.
In a Facebook post last month, Issac had said: "The Enforcement Directorate is a central agency that investigates black money and FEMA rules violations. The allegation is that there were FEMA violations in the issuing of masala bonds by KIIFB. The first argument is that the state government has no right to issue masala bonds. But KIIFB is not the state government. It is a 'body corporate'."
(With agency inputs)
