Not proper to disturb candidate just before polls: Kerala HC tells ED

The Kerala high court on Tuesday adjourned hearing in the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’s masala bond case against former minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader TM Thomas Isaac to May 22, observing that it was “not proper to disturb” an electoral candidate just before the general elections.
The Lok Sabha elections in Kerala will be held in the second phase on April 26 and Isaac is the CPI-M’s candidate from the Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha constituency. ED is probing alleged violations of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) rules in the issuance of masala bonds by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board in 2019, when Isaac was the state’s finance minister, and he had filed a plea before the high court, challenging the repeated summons being issued by the agency.
A bench of justice TR Ravi said, “I think it is not proper to disturb a candidate who is facing an election for a representation in Parliament at this stage, particularly because only less than a month is available for completing the elections.”
At the last hearing, the high court had asked the ED’s counsel to submit at least one transaction pointing to illegal conduct of Isaac, who was finance minister of Kerala between 2016 and 2021. The central agency then submitted the documents to the court.
The judge on Tuesday said, “I have gone through the files placed before me and I do not think it is proper stage to disclose details since these are matters to put to the persons facing investigation. However, I find that some transactions require explanations and the manner in which the explanations are received by the ED will be considered at a later stage since the elections are due and the petitioner is also a candidate.”
Isaac has repeatedly stated that he will not appear before the ED for questioning, terming its repeated summons as “pure harassment”.
“How can they (ED) find something now that they have been investigating for one and a half years and couldn’t find? That’s pure harassment. It is meant to tarnish us. The summons of the ED is against the essence of what the court said. I have told (the agency in the letter) that they must withdraw from sending such summons. If they won’t withdraw, I will approach the court again” Isaac had said in January.