Sessions court seeks response from ED on Senthilbalaji’s bail plea

Chennai: The Principal Sessions Court of Chennai has issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to respond to the bail plea of jailed minister V Senthilbalaji in the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case.

The bail plea was listed before Chief Justice S Alli. Senior advocate NR Elango, appearing for the minister, argued that the ED has tampered with the documents in the PMLA case and said that some evidence has also been attached with the petition.

Advocate N Ramesh appeared for ED and sought time to file its reply. After the presentation, the judge fixed January 8 for further hearing of the case.

Senthilbalaji was arrested by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on June 14 from his residence in Chennai.

The investigating agency had filed a PMLA case against Senthilbalaji in connection with the alleged cash-for-jobs scam during his tenure as transport minister in the then AIADMK regime.

Senthilbalaji was later produced before the Chennai sessions court on August 12 and the ED submitted a chargesheet containing about 200 pages and 3000 pages of documents related to the investigation in a sealed cover.

The Principal Sessions Court had twice earlier refused to grant bail to the jailed minister and the Madras High Court had also rejected his bail plea on medical grounds.

During the appeal, the Supreme Court rejected Senthilbalaji’s petition and directed him to approach the lower court.

Following the Supreme Court’s direction, Senthilbalaji approached the Principal Sessions Court for the third time for bail.