Tamil Nadu: Court extends judicial custody of Minister Senthil Balaji

The judicial custody for Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji was extended till August 8 by the Chennai sessions court on Wednesday. The ED had arrested Balaji in connection with an Enforcement Case Information Register (ECIR) filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2021.

Chennai: The Chennai Sessions Court on Wednesday has extended the judicial custody for Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji till August 8. The order was passed by Principle Judge S Alli.

Earlier on Friday, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate on a plea filed by the Tamil Nadu Minister challenging the Madras High Court’s order, which held his arrest by the ED legal in a money laundering case.

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The Madras High Court had on July 14 held legal the arrest of Balaji by the ED, and subsequent judicial custody granted by a lower court on money laundering charges against him linked to the cash-for-jobs scam.

The High Court order further clarified that time spent by Balaji under medical treatment in a private hospital would be excluded from the period of custody allowed to the ED.

The ED had arrested Senthil Balaji last month in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam that occurred in the state’s transport department, and he continues to be a Minister without a portfolio.

The Minister for Electricity as well as Prohibition and Excise, Balaji, was arrested on June 14 and admitted to a government hospital in Chennai after he complained of chest pain. He was allowed by the Madras High Court on June 15 to be shifted to a private hospital of his choice.

He was later taken from the Tamil Nadu government’s Multi Super Speciality Hospital to Kauvery Hospital at Alwarpet. Doctors attending to him recommended bypass surgery.

The ED had arrested Balaji in connection with an Enforcement Case Information Register (ECIR) filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2021. The ECIR was registered on the basis of three FIRs lodged against him by the local police in 2018 for his alleged involvement in a cash-for-job case when he was the Transport Minister in Jayalalitha’s Cabinet in 2015.

The charges date back to his tenure as transport minister during the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government from 2011 to 2015. He joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in December 2018 and assumed office as the Electricity Minister after the party came to power in May 2021.