HC grants 2 more months time to trial court for concluding proceedings in FERA case

The Madras High Court today granted two more months time to a lower court for concluding the main proceedings against sidelined AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran in a two-decade old FERA violation case filed by the Enforcement Directorate.
Justice M S Ramesh granted the extension when a memo filed by the ED Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Economic offences-II), Egmore, in this regard came up.
The prosecution case is that Dhinakaran acquired USD 1,04,93,313 without obtaining prior permission of the Reserve Bank of India and deposited it in the current account of Dipper Investments Limited, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, and having account with Barclays Bank, in UK's Sutton.

Charging him with violating Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), the ED imposed a penalty of Rs 28 crore.
On July 24, the high court had set aside the charges framed against Dhinakaran by the economic offences court here on April 19.
The court had directed the trial court to redo the process after granting adequate time to the accused to submit his objections and complete the trial within three months.
When the case came up before the trial court on August 1, the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate framed the charges afresh and provided an opportunity to the accused to make his submissions.

Though registered in 1996, the ED could not proceed ahead with the case due to several rounds of litigation.