Kerala Chief Minister's additional private secretary C M Raveendran on Tuesday approached the Kerala High Court seeking a stay on the summons issued by the Enforcement Directorate to him in the PMLA case in connection with the Kerala Gold Smuggling case. He approached the court after the ED summoned him to its Kochi office on December 17.
The petition, which he submitted today before the High Court stated that "the petitioner has not fully recovered from his illness and that he reasonably apprehends that he would be detained by ED for long hours which he would not be able to endure."
Apart from the stay, he also sought the court to issue an order or a direction to the ED to permit the petitioner to have the presence of a legal practitioner of his choice during his appearance.
He also sought to issue any appropriate writ, order, or direction to ED to restrain from detaining the petitioner at the ED beyond a reasonable time deemed fit by this court, the petition sought.
"The petitioner also apprehends that he would be coerced and compelled to make statements which are untrue and against his will," it said.
This is the fourth time ED has summoned Raveendran in the case. He didn't appear for the last three times citing his hospitalisation. The ED issued two summons each in November and this month.
( With inputs from ANI )
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