Senthil Balaji reaches Supreme Court against ED, challenges the decision of Madras High Court
New Delhi (IANS). Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji has approached the Supreme Court challenging his arrest in an alleged cash for jobs scam. Balaji has approached the Supreme Court after the Madras High Court upheld the ED’s right to detain him.
On Friday, a bench of Justice CV Karthikeyan ruled that the central agency has the right to arrest the DMK leader. The bench had said in the judgment that if the agency can arrest, it can also demand custody.
Senthil Balaji’s wife filed a habeas corpus petition in the Madras High Court challenging the arrest of Senthil Balaji by the ED. However, the Madras High Court, while upholding the trial court’s order, had ordered the judicial custody of Senthil Balaji by the ED.
In the judgment delivered on July 4, Justice J. Nisha Banu termed the minister’s arrest as illegal and ordered her release with immediate effect, while Justice D. Bharat Chakraborty dissented on the question of her ‘illegal’ detention.
The central probe agency had arrested Senthil Balaji in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam that allegedly took place during his tenure as Transport Minister from 2011 to 2016 in the then AIADMK government. Balaji’s wife had filed a petition in the High Court criticizing the arrest of her husband by the agency.
In an interim direction passed on June 15, the High Court had ordered the transfer of the minister from a government hospital to a private one, where he was in the custody of ED officials.
