Senior CPI(M) leader Thomas Isaac on Wednesday moved the Kerala High Court seeking quashing of the two summons issued to him by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with its probe into alleged violations in the financial dealings of KIIFB when he was the state Finance Minister in the previous LDF government.
Isaac, in the plea, contends that the ED was attempting to conduct a fishing and roving enquiry into the activities of Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and such enquiries have been time and again deprecated by the apex court. He also claimed that the summons issued to him to appear before the ED do not reveal the nature of the violation, if any, by him of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) or as to what is the investigation in relation to which his response is sought for.
Therefore, the "summons are ex-facie illegal and beyond the jurisdiction of the scope of inquiry contemplated under the FEMA since admittedly there is no violation of any provision of the said Act", Isaac claimed in his plea.
The plea also contains his reply dated August 9 to the latest ED summons for his presence before it on August 11. While the reply contends that the summons issued to him should be withdrawn or recalled by the ED and it should refrain from initiating further proceedings against him in the matter, the ruling CPI(M)-run TV 'Kairali News' said that Isaac has refused to appear before the agency.
The ED had served a notice to the senior Marxist leader last month, seeking his appearance before it on July 19. He, however, did not appear before the probe agency, saying he had to attend classes at a party-run institute in the state capital.
Then, Isaac had termed the ED notice to him as a 'political move' by the BJP government at the Centre, alleging it was misusing all investigation agencies for its political gains. The second notice seeking his appearance was sent by ED in the first week of August. Isaac had said before the last Assembly election, that the ED, the CAG and even the Income Tax Department was after KIIFB.