ED plea in Supreme Court against release of Tech Mahindra's Rs 822 crore in Satyam case

PUNE: The Enforcement Directorate has appealed to the Supreme Court against a decision by the Hyderabad High Court which in December 2018 set aside the ED’s move to provisionally attach Tech Mahindra’s fixed deposits worth Rs 822 crore in a case related to fraud at the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services. Tech Mahindra had acquired the beleaguered company in 2009.
PMLA Question
ED had argued before the High Court that the Rs 822 crore formed part of ill-gotten gains from the Rs 7,200 crore fraud.

The next hearing is on November 6, where the top court is expected to determine whether the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) could override other regulations.

“The matter is currently subjudice and it is inappropriate for us to comment,” said a Tech Mahindra spokesperson.

In 2012, the ED had provisionally attached the fixed deposits under Section 5(1) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 as its probe claimed to have found that Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju and his associates “wrongfully” offloaded inflated shares of the company by way of sale or pledging of shares.

A trail of loans from front companies showed that Rs 822 crore out of Rs 2,171.45 crore found their way to Satyam Computer and were used for day-to-day expenses like payment of salaries among others, the ED had said.