A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) to recover from Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran, a penalty of ₹ 31 crore supposedly imposed in 1998 under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) of 1978.
S. Parthiban, a resident of Saidapet here, filed the case accusing the ED of having failed to recover the penalty despite Supreme Court’s confirmation. Claiming that Mr. Dhinakaran owns properties worth several thousand crores of rupees in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, he insisted that they should be attached forthwith.
According to the litigant, the ED’s penalty order issued on February 6, 1998 was subsequently confirmed by the appellate tribunal for foreign exchange regulation.
In 2000, Mr. Dhinakaran filed an appeal in the High Court challenging the tribunal’s order. After 17 years, the High Court dismissed the appeal on January 6, 2017.
A further appeal to the Supreme Court also ended in dismissal, the litigant claimed and alleged that the ED had not taken any action to recover the penalty even after two years had elapsed since the apex court dismissed the appeal. He urged the court to issue appropriate directions for recovery of the penalty amount in public interest.
