Chennai: A special court here trying cases relating to MPs and MLAs of Tamil Nadu on Monday furnished a copy of the ED chargesheet to arrested DMK minister V Senthil Balaji in a money laundering case.
Special Judge K Ravi, before whom Balaji was produced physically by the jail authorities, furnished a copy of the chargesheet, running to about 3,000 pages including documents, filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier. The judge also extended the remand of Balaji to judicial custody till September 15, 2023.
The central agency had on August 12 filed the prosecution complaint of about 3,000 pages that included more than 2,000 pages of annexures and 168-170 pages of operational documents, arraigning Balaji as an accused. The special judge had on August 25, directed the jail authorities to produce him before the court physically. Accordingly, the jail authorities produced Balaji before the court on Monday.
The judge said there was no need to produce Balaji in person before the court on the next hearing and that he can appear through video-conferencing. Balaji entered the court at around 1.55 pm and was there for nearly an hour. When a bail petition was filed on behalf of Senthil Balaji, the judge asked the minister's counsel to approach the Principal Sessions Judge, as he had no jurisdiction to hear the plea.
The minister was arrested on June 14 in connection with a cash-for-jobs scam, when he was the Transport Minister in the earlier AIADMK regime. Balaji, lodged in the Puzhal jail here, continues to be a minister without portfolio in Chief Minister M K Stalin-led state cabinet. (PTI)
