Chennai: Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed the bail plea of former Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji, who is in jail for the past eight months after being arrested in a money laundering case, holding that there was no merit in his petition.
Justice Anand Venkatesh also contended that Balaji, though he resigned from Chief Minister M K Stalin’s Cabinet on February 12, still wields influence in the DMK dispensation pointing to the fact that he continued as a Minister without portfolio for about months after his arrest.
Considering the fact that Balaji, who hails from western Tamil Nadu, has suffered incarceration for over eight months, the judge directed the trial court to dispose of the case in three months.
“The petitioner has not made out a case by satisfying this court that there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is not guilty,” Justice Venkatesh said, holding that there was strong material to establish, prima facie, the charges of money laundering against Balaji.
“The fact that the petitioner continued to hold the position as a Minister for nearly eight months and that too without a portfolio when he was inside the jail, shows the tremendous influence of the petitioner and the importance that is given to him by the State Government,” the judge added.
Balaji was the Electricity and Prohibition Minister before he was stripped of the portfolios after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate on June 14 for his involvement in a cash-for-jobs scam during his tenure as Transport Minister in the erstwhile AIADMK government.
Stalin and the DMK continued to back Balaji even though Governor R N Ravi “dismissed” him from the Cabinet on June 29, only to put the decision “in abeyance” a few hours later. The Governor’s contention was that Balaji’s continuance in the Cabinet was “untenable” as he was arrested by the ED, but Stalin told Ravi, in a letter on June 30, that he had no powers to dismiss his ministers.
Justice Venkatesh had in January questioned the rationale behind Balaji’s continuance as a Minister without portfolio for eight months.
Balaji, who switched over to the DMK from AIADMK in 2018, has been credited for the party’s reversal of fortunes in Western Tamil Nadu in the 2022 civic elections, eight months after the DMK lost majority of seats in the 2021 assembly polls.
Though Balaji was arrested on June 14, he was immediately rushed to
to the Government Omandurar Hospital here after he complained of chest pain. Days later, the minister underwent a by-pass heart surgery at a private hospital on the permission of the High Court and was sent to Puzhal Central prison after the surgery.
Published 28 February 2024, 06:55 IST