The Madras High Court has turned its gaze on an Enforcement Directorate (ED) officer accused of ignoring a clear judicial command. Film producer Akash Baskaran, already battling the agency in a high-stakes money-laundering case, told the court that Assistant Director Vikas Kumar pressed ahead with a show cause notice despite an existing stay on the probe.
A bench of Justices MS Ramesh and V Lakshminarayanan has now issued notice to the officer, directing him to respond by September 17.
Baskaran’s complaint stems from a case that began in May when ED raids swept through his and associate Vikram Ravindran’s premises. The agency claimed it was chasing trails linked to an alleged ₹1,000 crore TASMAC-linked scam, but the High Court swiftly found the ED’s sealing of properties and seizure of material to be without legal footing.
On June 20, the court froze all further ED moves, ordered the return of seized items, and told the agency to unseal the properties, branding its earlier actions “wholly without jurisdiction.” The rebuke didn’t stop there—by August, the court had also slapped the ED with costs of ₹30,000 for dragging its feet in responding to Baskaran’s petitions.
Now, with the contempt plea on the table, the spotlight is back on whether the ED is playing by the rulebook—or writing its own.
