Former DMK functionary Jaffer Sadiq, accused of drug smuggling, moves Madras High Court with plea to quash ED’s arrest order

Former DMK functionary, A. Jaffer Saddiq, 35, of Chennai, accused in a narcotic drugs smuggling case, has approached the Madras High Court with a plea to quash an order passed by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on June 26, 2024 for arresting him in connection with a money laundering case.

A Division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramesh and Sunder Mohan on Thursday allowed a sub application filed by him to dispense with the production of the original arrest order copy and directed the High Court Registry to number the quash petition and list it for hearing in due course.

In his affidavit, the petitioner said he was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau on March 9 for alleged offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985 and remains in prison since then. Thereafter, a chargesheet was also filed against him before a special court in New Delhi. He said, the NCB sleuths had seized 50.07 kg of pseudoephedrine, an ingredient for highly addictive stimulant drug methamphetamine, from a location in New Delhi and arrested three individuals P.U. Mukesh, R. Mujibur Rahman and R. Ashok Kumar who were reportedly working for a person named Bezoz.

Watch | Drugs, money trail and politics: The Jaffer Sadiq case

Since the petitioner’s phone number had been saved by them as Bezoz in their mobile phones, he was roped in as the kingpin of the crime. Subsequently, the ED officials in Chennai had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 on the basis of the NDPS case.

The ED officials took the petitioner from Tihar jail, by obtaining necessary court orders, and interrogated him in connection with the money laundering in May and June this year. He also said an order was passed by the ED on June 26, 2024 for arresting him and claimed he was indeed arrested on that day.

Since he was not produced before a competent magistrate within 24 hours of this formal arrest, the petitioner contended that the arrest had become illegal. However, to overcome their failure, the ED had obtained a prisoner’s transit warrant from a Principal Sessions Court in Chennai on June 28, he said.

The petitioner insisted on the court’s quashing the arrest order passed by an Assistant Director of the ED on June 26 and staying the arrest order until the disposal of the quash petition.