New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji has moved the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court order allowing the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take him into custody for questioning in connection with the cash for jobs scam. On July 14, in a major setback for the ruling DMK and the arrested Tamil Nadu Minister Balaji, Madras High Court dismissed as not maintainable the Habeas Corpus Petition filed on his behalf by his wife, Megala, and upheld the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) power to take him into custody.
After marathon hearings which lasted for three days, Justice CV Karthikeyan delivered the verdict. Upon his arrest by the ED past midnight on June 13, he was hospitalised and then remanded and granted custody by the Principal Sessions Judge. Then, hearing the HCP, a Division Bench allowed him to be shifted to a private hospital where he underwent heart surgery. Megala filed the HCP, contending that the arrest was in contravention of established procedures, violating fundamental rights.
On the political front, Chief Minister MK Stalin retained him as a minister without portfolio, and the DMK had rallied behind Balaji, arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Post-surgery, he is still recuperating at the hospital. The case was placed before Justice Karthikeyan after the Division Bench of Justices Nisha Banu and D Bharatha Chakravarthy pronounced a split verdict.
Watch: TN Minister Senthil Balaji writhes in pain while being taken to hospital
Holding that the HCP is maintainable, Justice Banu declared the arrest illegal and ordered Balaji to be set free, Justice Charavarthy held that the ED was within its power to arrest and seek custody. Now, the third judge had concurred with Justice Chakravarthy. The ED speeding up the case followed the direction of the Supreme Court in the cash-for-job scam against Balaji, when he was Transport minister in the Jayalalithaa cabinet in 2015.
“I would hold that ED herein has a right to take Senthil Balaji into custody. I would align myself with the reasoning given by Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy so far as this point is concerned. I would rest with the reasoning given (by the Supreme Court) in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary, where it is stated that even though ED officials are not police officers, they cannot be precluded from the investigation.” he said even while accepting the argument of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Balaji, that ED officials are not police officers.
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