HC stays FERA board order on Chandraswami

The court was hearing an appeal by the government against the order of the FERA board saying "evidence on record clearly shows that the respondent had contravened FERA."

The FERA board had quashed the order of special director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which had imposed a fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on Chandraswami for failing to show the source of a total of 13,000 pounds paid to the Queen’s Bench of the London High Court in a defamation suit against pickle king Lakhubhai Pathak and his solicitor in London.

ED had initiated proceedings against Chandraswami on the basis of CBI documents which indicated that he had deposited 6,000 pounds as defendant’s cost in the London court and paid 7,000 pounds to his lawyer for filing the suit against Pathak.

Chandraswami had pleaded before the adjudicating authority that the money was deposited by arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and had placed the latter’s affidavit in this regard. But the affidavit was rejected as it was not properly sworn.

Chandraswami had filed the suit in 1984 in the London court after Pathak levelled allegations that the godman and his aide Kailashnath Aggarwal had cheated him of one lakh dollars in December 1983 on the promise of getting him newsprint and paper supply contract in India.

However, Chandraswami’s suit was dismissed in the London court after three-year-long legal battle.