Isaac's petition; High court's notice to ED

KOCHI: High court has issued notices to the ED and the Reserve Bank on a petition filed by former finance minister Thomas Isaac against repeated summonses by the Enforcement Directorate in the masala bond case. Justice Devan Ramachandran has directed to file a counter affidavit as well. Isaac's argument will be heard on February 9 along with the petition filed by KIIFB against the ED.

Asking verbally if this was not just a summons, the court mentioned that Isaac had not appeared before the ED and the KIIFB officials had. Thomas Isaac's lawyer Jayadeep Gupta pointed out that the ED had withdrawn the first summons that sought the statement and documents of Thomas Isaac. KIIFB's counsel Arvind Duttar alleged that the fresh summons they received was in the nature of a show cause notice. The ED is probing whether there was any violation of foreign exchange rules in the issuance of masala bonds by KIIFB during the previous government's tenure.