The bench took note of submissions by senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Amit nand Tiwari that the state itself has lodged over 40 FIRs in cases related to allotment of liquor shop licences from 2014 and now the ED has entered the picture, raiding TASMAC’s headquarters and taking the managing director into custody.

"How can you raid the state-run TASMAC?" the bench asked.

Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, also appearing for the state, submitted that the ED had taken cloned copies of phones belonging to TASMAC officials, violating their privacy and disregarding court guidelines.

The apex court made these scathing remarks after hearing a petition by the Tamil Nadu government challenging the Madras High Court’s April 23 order dismissing its and TASMAC’s petitions against the ED raids conducted between April 6 and 8, including at TASMAC headquarters.

The HC bench had observed that the allegations against TASMAC were grave and warranted deeper investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Earlier, the ED claimed it unearthed evidence of large-scale irregularities involving Rs 1,000 crore through fraudulent transactions by breweries and bottling units, with unaccounted cash siphoned off and used as kickbacks to secure contracts and obtain more supply orders from TASMAC during raids in March.

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