Chenai: Clutching to his chest with one hand and covering his eyes with the other, Tamil Nadu minister V. Senthil Balaji was seen sobbing when he was carried out of the car to the Omandarur Government hospital in the early hours of Wednesday.
This was after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday searched his residences in Chennai and Karur as well as his office at the Tamil Nadu secretariat. Close to 18 hours after the searches, official sources said, Senthil was informed at around 1.30 am about his arrest in a money laundering case.
On Wednesday morning, Senthil, 47, underwent a coronary angiogram after which he was advised CABG-bypass surgery for triple vessel disease, according to a medical bulletin.
“Despite cooperation, Senthil Balaji was pressured, triggering chest pain. He is in the ICU now. Is this unhumanitarian act required? Senthil Balaji will face the case legally. DMK is not scared of BJP’s intimidation tactics. People are watching the clampdown. They will teach a lesson in the 2024 polls,” Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said.
The raid conducted by ED at the Secretariat office of Hon'ble Minister Senthil Balaji, is a direct assault on the federal principle.
The backdoor tactics of BJP against its political opponents will not yield them desired results. BJP will learn it the hard way soon. The silence… pic.twitter.com/lic3uAcSHO
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) June 13, 2023
With the ED raids and his arrest, Senthil has become a rallying point for the opposition parties to come out against the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in the run-up to the 2024 general election.
The minister for electricity, prohibition and excise, who has changed political affiliation three times in his 28-year political career, has been at the receiving end of criticism from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at various junctures.
His contemporaries as well as political analysts describe Senthil as a ‘Yes Man’ who prefers to stay away from antagonising his rivals. Senthil is an “indispensable part” of the DMK in less than five years of joining the DMK, the analysts said, pointing at the beeline of his Cabinet colleagues to meet him at the hospital.
A Chennai court, meanwhile, has sent Senthil to judicial custody till 28 June. He was permitted to remain in hospital for continuing treatment.
Political journey so far
Known to be a strongman from Karur, Senthil Balaji comes from an agricultural family in Rameswarapatti. He hails from the Gounder community which is a dominant group in the Kongu belt of which Karur is a part of.
At the age of 20, Senthil stepped into active politics in 1995, by joining the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK). It was not long before he joined the DMK and became an elected ward councillor in 1996.
Credited with mingling closely with party cadres, Senthil has built a loyal base in the Kongu region including Karur and Arvakurichi from where he has won consecutively for the last four terms since 2006.
In 2000, Senthil joined the AIADMK from the DMK and slowly rose up the ranks in the next six years to contest from Karur in 2006. He was made the transport minister in the Jayalalithaa Cabinet in 2011.
After Jayalalithaa died in 2016, Senthil supported Sasikala’s nephew T.T.V Dhinakaran in the factional fight against Edappadi K Palanisamy (EPS). The Aruvakkurichi MLA was among the 18 MLAs who were disqualified for not supporting EPS in the vote of confidence in 2017.
“Senthil is a dedicated ground worker, who works extremely hard for the development of the party,” former AIADMK MLA and former Rajya Sabha MP Thanga Tamilselvan, a close friend of Senthil, told ThePrint.
“There can be no one like Senthil when it comes to election work. He will always be there on the field. Every senior likes him, be it Amma (Jayalalithaa) or Thalapathi (Stalin). They always had praises to shower on Senthil.”
Tamilselvan and Senthil were disqualified for rebelling against EPS, and helped Dhinakaran form Amma Makkal Munnettra Kazagam (AMMK) in March 2018. Senthil joined the DMK in December 2018, Tamilselvan followed the same path in June 2019.
Political analyst Priyan Srinivasan, too, acknowledged the organisational capabilities of Senthil. “His political journey and elevation has been quite quick. He is a good field worker and any task given to him can be considered done. He is very loyal and does a highly dedicated job,” Srinivasan told ThePrint.
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Turning the tide for DMK
After the DMK made him the district in-charge for Karur in 2018, Senthil clinched the constituency in 2021 and thereby the party made a comeback close to 25 years following its previous win in 1996.
“The reason the DMK improved well in the local body in Coimbatore Kongu region this time is also because of Senthil,” Priyan said.
DMK organisational secretary R.S. Bharathi told ThePrint that the erstwhile AIADMK-BJP fortress of Coimbatore, Kongu belt was slowly becoming a stronghold of DMK due to Senthil’s work.
Bharathi added that Senthil was appointed as a district secretary because of the confidence that the party has in him. “It is a very important position in the DMK. It is considered as a position higher than that of a Cabinet minister.”
“The increasing influence of the DMK in Coimbatore-Kongu belt is seen as a threat by the AIADMK and the BJP as they are going out of the picture there. They fear that Senthil’s hold in the region will affect their prospects there,” he asserted.
DMK leaders alleged that Senthil was also being targeted for the power failure that happened when Union home minister Amit Shah visited Chennai.
Political analyst Sumanth C. Raman said though Senthil does not antagonise anybody, his bitter fight with BJP state chief K. Annamalai has grabbed the limelight in the last one year.
On numerous occasions, Annamalai took jibes at Senthil Balaji and often referred to him as ‘Saraya amaichar (liquor minister)’. After the spurious liquor deaths in May, he submitted a memorandum to the Governor demanding the removal of Senthil from the cabinet and stated that there was a spike in the increase of drug and alcohol abuse-related cases since May 2021.
The reason for Annamalai targeting Senthil is the former IPS officer’s defeat in Aravakurichi in 2021, Tamilselvan asserted.
Senthil Balaji, on his part, was the reason behind Annamalai’s watch controversy in the state.
Cash-for-jobs scam
Senthil and his close aides are alleged to have taken bribes in lieu of jobs in the transport department between 2014 and 2015. In 2018, four people lodged a complaint against Senthil and a few others in the cash-for-jobs scam. An 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 MP/MLA court in 2019.
Taking cognisance, the ED filed four cases naming Senthil as an accused and issued a summons in 2019. Two years on, he approached the Madras High Court requesting the FIRs against him be quashed, claiming he had reached a settlement with 13 of the job aspirants. He also challenged the ED summons, which was also quashed and a stay order on the FIRs was issued in 2022.
Things started going against Senthil in May after the Supreme Court set aside the high court’s order and allowed the ED to continue its probe under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
On 26 May, the Income Tax (I-T) department conducted searches in over 40 properties linked to Senthil and his close relatives, and electricity board contractors.
Political observers suspected that the sudden ED raids may also be a follow on to the I-T raids and added that this could be a beginning of a larger crackdown in Tamil Nadu.
In its remand note to a court, the ED alleged that Senthil refused to sign and receive its summons order on 14 June and “started behaving in an intimidating manner, shouted and yelled at the officer”. Senthil was completely non-cooperative during the summon proceedings, it added.
Controversies in the past
Before filing his nomination for the 2021 election, the DMK leader landed in soup for allegedly announcing that bullock cart operators can lift sand from the river bed as soon as Stalin becomes the chief minister.
In March that year, Senthil was booked for provocation with an intent to cause riot, threatening public servant, creating enmity, criminal intimidation and deterring public servants from discharging duty for this statement.
Noting that his speech was “misinterpreted”, he clarified the administration would make it legal to load sand in bullock carts in Karur, which was already permitted in other districts. The ruling AIADMK was involved in illegal sand mining, Senthil said, challenging other parties such as the BJP to stop it if elected to power.
After the ED raids and arrest, the AIADMK has demanded the minister’s resignation on moral grounds, with EPS stating that Senthil was “enacting a drama”.
Taking cue from Stalin’s statement from 2016, the AIADMK and the BJP said the ED functioned under an independent law and seem to have acted on credible evidence against Senthil.
Stalin had stated that the I-T department functioned under an independent law and seems to have acted on credible evidence against the then chief secretary P. Rama Mohan Rao for amassing disproportionate wealth. The AIADMK was in power back then.
On Wednesday, Annamalai tweeted a 2016 video of Stalin where he was seen criticising Senthil. “There is a minister from this Karur district: Senthil Balaji. The cabinet got reshuffled 15 times, but Senthil Balaji remained in the cabinet; he had so much influence. He was a junior minister but he did not lose ministry while senior ministers were reshuffled. Even when Jayalalithaa was in jail, his name was considered for the CM post. Senthil Balaji and his brother are controlling the district by looting,” Stalin says in Tamil.
A gentle reminder to Thiru @mkstalin on what he spoke a few years back about the #CashForJobScam tainted Thiru Senthil Balaji.
Are you going to refute this, Thiru @mkstalin?
Why are you playing victim card today? https://t.co/ybFUtqrFov pic.twitter.com/c1YeCyhvFn
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) June 14, 2023
“Close to 4,000 bars are unlicensed now in Tamil Nadu, and there is no proper indentation of the stocks in TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation Limited). So, you know where the money goes. From the lowermost employees to the higher officials of TASMAC and DMK politicians and their boss, all get a share of the pie. There are also allegations of contractors being favoured for allotment of electricity board’s contracts,” AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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