The Madras High Court on Monday directed businessman C. Sivasankaran, 62, a Seychelles national who founded, acquired and exited many companies including the defunct telecom services provider Aircel Limited, to include the Union Ministry of External Affairs as one of the respondents to a case filed by him challenging a Lookout Circular.

Justice A.D. Jagadish Chandira wanted to know from the union ministry as to whether any extradition treaty was in existence between India and Seychelles. The judge insisted on knowing the factual position before taking a final decision on the plea to allow the petitioner to fly abroad for his business and personal trips.

Earlier in the day, N. Ramesh, the Special Public Prosecutor for the Directorate of Enforcement, filed a counter affidavit and vehemently objected to the petitioner’s plea. He claimed that the investigations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act would be stalled if the petitioner was allowed to flee away from the country.

It was also pointed out that the ED had booked the cases only after the Central Bureau of Investigation had registered a First Information Report in April 2018 against him and others for having allegedly caused wrongful loss of more than Rs. 600 crore to IDBI Bank by obtaining loans in connivance with top officials of the bank.

K. Srinivasan, Special Public Prosecutor for CBI cases, too filed an individual counter affidavit and opposed the petitioner’s plea to withdraw the Lookout Circular.

According to the First Information Report (FIR), IDBI Bank sanctioned a loan for ₹322.40 crore to Finnish power generation firm Win Windy Oy (WWO) in October 2010. It was the case of CBI that the Seychelles-based Siva Investments and Holdings Limited (SIHL) was the holding company of WWO and that SIHL was part of Siva group of companies of which the writ petitioner was the chairman.

The performance of WWO showed stress and it was eventually granted voluntary bankruptcy by a court in Finland in October 2013. Despite knowing this, the top brass of IDBI Bank entered into a criminal conspiracy with the promoter directors of Siva group of companies and sanctioned loan of ₹523 crore to Axcel Sunshine Limited, a company based in British Virgin Islands and an associate of Siva group, the prosecution claimed.