SC seeks law officer's assistance on Tech Mahindra's ED case

The Supreme Court today sought the assistance of Centre's law officer to hear a petition filed by Tech Mahindra Ltd in connection with Enforcement Directorate's proceeding in the Satyam accounting fraud case.
The case pertains to ED's attachment of fixed deposit worth Rs 822 crore belonging to the company and cases have been registered for alleged money laundering and foreign exchange violation.
A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur asked Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh to go through the papers and posted the matter for hearing on May 11.
Tech Mahindra has appealed against a two-judge bench order of the high court at the judicature of Hyderabad, which had allowed a special court hearing criminal cases arising out of the Satyam scam to frame charges against Tech Mahindra.

Earlier, a single judge of the high court had held that ED could not initiate proceedings against Tech Mahindra.
Tech Mahindra through senior advocate Kapil Sibal has contended that it was not in existence when the money laundering allegations came to light.

The company has contended that the charge under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was in the misconceived basis that it was "in possession" of proceeds of crime.
"It (company) is the victim of an unprecedented fraud perpetrated by its former chairman B Ramalinga Raju and his associates," the petition said.
ED had attached the accounts of SCSL (formerly Satyam Computer Services Ltd) after it was found in the probe that Raju and his associates "wrongfully" offloaded inflated shares of the said company by way of sale or pledging of shares.

Trail of loans derived from front companies revealed that Rs 822 crore out of Rs 2171.45 crore found their way to Satyam Computers and were used for day-to-day expenses like payment of salaries among others, ED had said.