Vacate stay against summons issued to Nalini: ED

Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate has approached the Madras high court to vacate the interim stay granted earlier against summons issued to advocate Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram  by it in connection with Saradha chit scam case. Justice S. M. Subramaniam before whom the vacate stay petition filed by ED came up for hearing, adjourned it to April 13.

The ED had on September 7, 2016,  issued summons to Nalini Chidambaram in connection with receipt of over '1 crore by her as fee from promoters of Saradha group. Challenging the same, Nalini filed a petition and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam had on September 21, 2016, admitted her petition and granted the interim relief by directing the ED to keep the summons in abeyance until further orders.
In her petition, Nalini contended that the summons was illegal, since as per section 160 of Code of Civil Procedure, a woman could not be summoned by police. The police should hold an inquiry only at her residence.

The amount was paid to her for more than 25 appearances before the courts and company law board and that the money was paid by Saradha group chairman Sudhipto Sen because it was a clause in an agreement between Sudhipto and former union minister Matang Singh's wife Manoranjana over a television channel purchase deal. The fee was paid in cheque and she declared the same in her tax returns and paid tax as well. Moreover, the transaction took place before the Saradha chit scam case, she pointed out and sought to quash the summons.