ED singling out Kerala; foreign banks denying funds citing ED proceedings: KIIFB tells Kerala High Court

The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) on Friday told the Kerala High Court that the probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has had an adverse impact on the board's ability to raise funds which in turn, has continued to affect infrastructure projects across the State of Kerala [Kerala Infrastructure Investment Board (KIIFB) v Director, Directorate of Enforcement]..At the hearing before Justice VG Arun, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, representing KIIFB, submitted that foreign financial institutions have been and will continue to decline funds to the KIIFB, citing the ongoing probe by the central agency."When I go to a foreign company or a foreign financial institution to raise funds, they do due diligence and the first question the ask if there are any proceedings pending against you? There is no point in me arguing before them that I have a very good case on merit. They are going to say your own government's Enforcement Directorate is investigating you and that they cannot invest. 2-3 banks have already said this and I am willing to place those on record. This has ramifications for entire state of Kerala. No other institution is facing this problem. A larger public interest is involved," Datar said..Datar went on to contend that even though the RBI regulated masala bonds, which are allegedly at the centre of the ED probe, are used by many public sector undertakings, it seemed that KIIFB was being singled out. "Not only KIIFB but many public sector undertakings including National Highways Corporation and Power Trading Corporation have all floated masala bonds. But nobody else has come under the scanner when all all the bonds are coming under identical rules. There is no reason to single out Kerala alone. This has large scale ramifications on infrastructure of Kerala," he stated. On these grounds, he pressed the Court to set a timeline for the ED to complete its probe and direct the ED to submit details of all the masala bonds issued and all the investigations into the same..Since Central Government Counsel Jaishankar V Nair, representing the ED, sought more time to file a counter-affidavit, the Court adjourned the matter to be heard next on September 23. .The Court was considering two petitions today. .One petition was moved by the KIIFB challenging the repeated issuance of summons by the ED to KIIFB officers, including CEO KM Abraham, in connection with alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) when it issued 'Masala Bonds', i.e, rupee denominated bonds issued outside India by Indian entities.At the previous hearing of this plea, the Court had observed that the repeated issuance of summons for procuring the same documents, indicated lack of application of mind on the part of the Central agency..[KIIFB vs ED] Repeated summons for same documents seem to indicate lack of application of mind: Kerala High Court.The other petition was moved by former Kerala Finance Minister and member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Dr. Thomas Issac, challenging the summons issued by the ED seeking his personal documents as well as those of his family members in connection with the probe into KIIFB.During the previous hearing, the Court had pointed out that Dr. Issac has a right to privacy and asked the ED to explain why it had sought documents relating to his personal assets at the initial stage of the probe itself. .[Dr. Thomas Isaac v. ED] He has right to privacy; why do you want these documents in probe into KIIFB? Kerala High Court to ED .KIIB is being represented by Senior Advocate Arvind Datar and advocates BG Harindranath, M Gopikrishnan and Amith Krishnan H. Isaac is being represented by Seniot Advocate Siddhartha Dave and advocates Nandagopal S Kurup, N Raghuraj, Sayuja and Vivek Menon..The ED's probe into the financial transactions of the KIIFB has recently been the subject matter of three petitions before the Kerala High Court.Five members of the Kerala Legislative Assembly have also approached the Kerala High Court by way of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition against the ongoing probe.