The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case brought by the Enforcement Directorate challenging a Madras High Court verdict allowing the transfer of detained Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji, who is receiving medical care at a public hospital, to a private facility, on June 21.
In order to have an urgent hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta brought up the case before a vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and M M Sundresh.
Balaji is a powerful minister, and the high court has approved his transfer to a private hospital, Mehta informed the judge. On June 15, the HC authorised the transfer of the minister, who had been detained by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and had been receiving medical care at a city government hospital, to a private facility.
The Enforcement Directorate had earlier on June 13 raided Senthil Balaji’s residences in Karur and Chennai. The subject of the raids when he was a minister in the previous AIADMK administration was a money-laundering issue involving an alleged job scam. The investigative agency detained the DMK leader on June 13 after performing a raid on his residence.
As his supporters gathered to protest the ED action in the early hours of June 14, Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji began crying in pain while lying in a car after being detained by cops of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning regarding an alleged money laundering case. The DMK leader had been carried to the hospital, and there was high drama outside.
A police and ED inquiry into an alleged cash-for-jobs conspiracy against Balaji, who also serves as the Prohibition and Excise position, was given permission by the Supreme Court to begin last month.
Raids by the Income Tax Department had taken place at more than 40 places in Tamil Nadu, including the homes and workplaces of government contractors who were reportedly connected to Senthil Balaji, the state’s energy minister and a close ally of chief minister MK Stalin of Tamil Nadu. Senthil refuted the reports and solicited support for the organisation.
