National

ETV Bharat / state

TN minister Senthil Balaji’s wife moves SC challenging HC order allowing ED to take him into custody

Megala, the wife of Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji, filed a plea in the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court order allowing the Enforcement Directorate to take Balaji into custody for questioning in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam.

A plea has been filed by Megala, wife of Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji, in the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court order allowing the Enforcement Directorate to take Balaji into custody for questioning in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam.
Senthil Balaji (File)

By

Published : Jul 18, 2023, 6:57 PM IST

New Delhi:Megala, the wife of Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji, has filed a plea in the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court order allowing the Enforcement Directorate to take Balaji into custody for questioning in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam.

Megala’s plea challenged the validity of the Madras High Court's orders of July 14 and July 4, dismissing her habeas corpus petition as not maintainable. A single-judge bench on July 14 concurred with a view of one of the judges on the division bench allowing the ED to take him into custody.

The plea said: “Not being a ‘police officer’, there is no law that confers powers on the ED to seek police custody of the accused. There is no provision in the PMLA that confers powers to the ED to seek an order of remand to its own custody in the same manner as ‘an officer in charge of a police station’ or ‘a police officer making the investigation’ exercises on production before a Magistrate under section 167 CrPC post arrest”.

The plea, filed through advocate Amit Anand Tiwari, argued that the high court erred to hold that ED has the right to investigate further after making arrest under Section 19 of PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) and then seeking custody for further investigation is permissible.

The plea said, “where it is the case of the ED that a detailed inquiry has been conducted involving, inter alia, discovery and seizure of records and properties from the residence of Mr. V. Senthil Balaji and recording of his statement under Section 17(1)(f) PMLA, and that such inquiry has given rise to a reason to believe that he is guilty of an offence under Section 3 of the PMLA, there can be no rationale for an argument that they should be now empowered to seek police custody as police officers conducting investigation”.

Also read: Senthil Balaji case: ED cannot seek police custody beyond 15 days from arrest, counsel Kapil Sibal tells Madras HC

Megala sought a direction to stay both the orders, contending ED is not police and has got no right to seek custody and in Balaji's matter, the period of 15 days from the date of arrest is over and the ED cannot now seek his custody.

The plea said, “The High Court in the Impugned Order dated 14.7.2023 has not examined the applicability of Section 41A CrPC. 38.It is submitted that Section 41A is an important procedural safeguard against illegal arrest of a person as it is a procedure prescribed in law in terms of Article 21, required to be followed before a person can be deprived of his liberty”.

On July 14, in a major setback for the ruling DMK and the arrested Tamil Nadu Minister Balaji, Madras High Court dismissed as not maintainable the Habeas Corpus Petition filed on his behalf by his wife, Megala, and upheld the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) power to take him into custody.

After marathon hearings which lasted for three days, Justice CV Karthikeyan delivered the verdict. Upon his arrest by the ED past midnight on June 13, he was hospitalised and then remanded and granted custody by the Principal Sessions Judge. Then, hearing the Habeas Corpus Petition (HCP), a Division Bench allowed him to be shifted to a private hospital where he underwent heart surgery. Megala filed the HCP, contending that the arrest was in contravention of established procedures, violating fundamental rights.

On the political front, Chief Minister MK Stalin retained him as a minister without portfolio, and the DMK had rallied behind Balaji, arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Post-surgery, he is still recuperating at the hospital. The case was placed before Justice Karthikeyan after the Division Bench of Justices Nisha Banu and D Bharatha Chakravarthy pronounced a split verdict.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

...view details