New Delhi, Nov 17 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a petition filed by former Church of South India (CSI) Bishop A. Dharmaraj Rasalam, who has sought quashing of a money laundering case registered against him in connection with the Karakonam CSI Medical College corruption matter.
A Bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta issued a notice returnable in four weeks and ordered that trial court proceedings shall remain stayed in the meantime.
“Issue notice, returnable in four weeks. In the meantime, trial court proceedings shall remain stayed,” the Bench directed.
During the hearing, Justice Nath asked, “Why should the Bishop do all these things?”
Senior Advocate Dr S. Muralidhar, appearing for Rasalam, responded, “There is no case at all.”
He submitted that all predicate offences had resulted in closure reports and proceedings under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cannot continue in the absence of predicate offences.
He added that there were five closure reports, and that the ECIR strangely annexed two of those closure reports itself.
Justice Nath cautioned, “Don’t do all this.”
Justice Mehta remarked in a lighter vein, “But if they don’t do all this, who will engage Supreme Court lawyers!”
The Kerala High Court, on March 24, had refused to quash the chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against Rasalam, who is arrayed as Accused No. 2 before the Special PMLA Court.
The ED alleges that in 2019, Rasalam and others collected over Rs7 crore from parents of aspiring medical students on the promise of admission to MBBS and PG courses at CSI Medical College, Karakonam, but the admissions were never granted.
Multiple complaints were lodged by parents alleging that college officials took substantial amounts of money under the pretext of securing admission.
The Crime Branch, however, filed a final report in 2021 before the magistrate, stating that the allegations were false and malicious.
Despite this, the High Court rejected Rasalam’s plea to quash the PMLA case, prompting his appeal to the Supreme Court.
The matter has now been posted after notice for further hearing, following the four-week returnable period.
