High Court dismisses Santiago Martin's appeal against ED's attachment proceedings

KOCHI: The High Court dismissed the appeal filed by Santiago Martin questioning the provisional attachment of assets worth Rs 910.29 crore in a case registered by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in relation to lottery transactions. The single bench had earlier dismissed the petition and upheld the proceedings of the ED. The appeal filed by Santiago Martin and Future Gaming and Hotel Services Limited against this was dismissed by a division bench comprising Chief Justice Ashish J Desai and Justice VG Arun.

The complaint lodged by Santiago against the attachment proceedings is pending before the concerned adjudicating authority. Taking this into account, the division bench dismissed the appeal stating that it expects that the authority will soon take a decision. The division bench also directed to consider the complaint without taking into account the observations made earlier by the High Court on the petition of Santiago Martin. The CBI had earlier filed a charge sheet against Santiago Martin and his partner, MJ Associates, in the case of lottery trading in violation of state lottery rules and regulations. Following this, ED registered a case and confiscated the properties.