New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V. Senthilbalaji early Wednesday following hours of searches at his office in the state secretariat and bungalow in Chennai in a money laundering case, said media reports.
Balaji was admitted to the hospital after he complained of chest pain.
Tuesday’s raids, which were also held at locations linked to the minister in Karur and Coimbatore, were condemned by opposition parties across the country even as Chief Minister M.K. Stalin alleged ‘misuse’ of power by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
This is the first time that the ED has entered a Secretariat, said media reports.
The development comes a month after the Supreme Court set aside a Madras High Court order and allowed the ED to probe into the minister’s alleged role in the cash-for-jobs scam under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during his tenure as the transport minister under the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) regime in 2014.
Balaji was accused of taking bribes from job aspirants for vacancies in the state transport department between 2014 and 2015.
The DMK came out in support of its minister and launched a scathing attack on the BJP. Calling it the “calm before the storm of 2024”, CM Stalin put out a press release Tuesday evening, stating that “the backdoor tactics of BJP against its political opponents will not yield them desired results.”
“The silence of the people who are watching BJP’s cheap acts of vindictive politics should not be underestimated,” he added in the statement he shared on Twitter.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge too issued a statement condemning the ‘blatant misuse of ED’ and labelled it as ‘brazen attempts of the Modi government at harassment and intimidation.’
“These tactics will not succeed in silencing the Opposition,” the statement read.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too called the raids ‘unacceptable’. In a tweet condemning the act, she added that it was a ‘desperate act by BJP’.
I condemn the political vendetta by BJP against DMK @arivalayam today. Misuse of central agencies continues. ED raids in Tamil Nadu at office of Minister for Prohibition and Excise at the state secretariat and his official residence are unacceptable. Desperate acts by BJP.
— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) June 13, 2023
Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Blinded by political vendetta, the BJP is causing irreversible damage to our democracy.”
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‘Cash-for-jobs’
Balaji joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in 2018. The same year, based on four complaints against Balaji and a few others, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered under Sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The case was filed before a special court for members of parliament (MPs) and members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) — MP/MLA court — in 2019. The same year, Balaji was again elected MLA on a DMK ticket.
Meanwhile, the ED filed four cases in the alleged scam. Naming Balaji as one of the accused, the ED also issued summons against the legislator.
In the 2021 assembly election, he won from Karur. That year, he approached the Madras HC, requesting that the FIRs against him be quashed. He said he had reached a settlement with 13 of the job aspirants. The court quashed the proceeding of the special court. An appeal was, however, filed against this.
Meanwhile, the minister approached the Madras HC again, challenging the ED summons. The court quashed the summons and put a stay order on the FIRs last year. It was this ruling that the SC set aside 16 May.
On 26 May, the income tax department (I-T) conducted coordinated searches at Balaji’s residence and properties belonging to his brother, Ashok, and other relatives and contractors allegedly close to him, ThePrint reported.
Days prior to the SC ruling in the cash-for-jobs case, about 22 people had died in the state in two separate cases of hooch tragedy, prompting the BJP and the AIADMK to demand Balaji’s resignation from the ministry.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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