Passport cancellation: Karnataka high court rejects plea of Srikrishna’s brother

BENGALURU: In a big setback for Sudarshan Ramesh, elder brother of Bitcoin scam accused Srikrishna, the high court has rejected his petition challenging the cancellation of his passport and also the lookout circular (LOC) issued against him.
“In the instant case, investigation of money laundering against the brother of the petitioner is in progress, apart from investigation regarding role of the petitioner along with his brother in money laundering,” justice SG Pandit observed.The judge added that in light of extracts of several emails placed before the court, the apprehension of respondents (ED) that the petitioner may settle down in the Netherlands and not be available for further investigation has to be respected. “It is for the petitioner to cooperate with the investigation being conducted by ED and to convince it that he has no role to play in the money-laundering case registered against his brother and request for withdrawal of LOC.”
Sudarshan had sought the quashing of endorsement dated January 13, 2022, whereby his passport was cancelled for travel and also to quash the lookout circular issued against him. He had urged the court to issue a direction to ED to permit him to travel and also order an inquiry into the actions taken by the agency and direct the officials responsible to compensate him. In his petition, he stated that he had duly appeared before the ED on December 29 and 30, 2021 and also on January 1, 2022.
According to him, he has no role in the alleged scam as he was not in India when it is said to have taken place. He added that the authorities have not found anything concrete vis-a-vis his involvement in the scam and hence they have not summoned him again or made him an accused in the criminal proceedings. He claimed that the permissive period to remain outside the Netherlands expired on January 27, 2022 and if he was not permitted to travel, the same may affect his job as well as residence permit under the Dutch laws. He added his father is suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
The ED argued that the petitioner is silent in respect of receipt of 50,000 GBP from his brother Sri Krishna through bank transfer. Unless he explains satisfactorily the same and further transfer of the money to Hanish Patel and furnishes the password of the temporary emails and certain keys, his presence for probe with regard to the case against his brother would be absolutely necessary as the economic interest of the country is involved, it said. The ED further argued that conversation between the petitioner and his father had revealed that some GBP were transferred to a Swiss account, the details of which are unknown.