Chennai: A sessions court here on Thursday ordered issuing notice to the ED on a petition filed by former DMK Minister V Senthil Balaji, seeking to re-open the arguments on his side in his discharge petition in the case. Balaji was arrested in June 2023 by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
His arguments in the discharge plea was closed on March 22. On Thursday, III Additional Sessions Judge D V Anand, before whom the petition filed by Balaji came up for hearing, ordered issuing notice and posted to April 4, further hearing of the case. Originally, Principal Sessions Judge S Alli had on March 22 reserved orders for today on the discharge petition filed by Balaji. While so, Balaji filed the present petition.
In his present petition, Balaji submitted he had sought an order from this court to direct the bank officials to produce two original challans and the court also issued summons to them to produce the same.
But till date the bank officials have not produced the same before the court. He has also fulfilled the procedures to be adopted. Hence, he was not able to put forth arguments on the reliability and validity of the two challans. Therefore, he can make further arguments with regard to challans only when the ED produces them before the court and circulates the same to him.
In the above circumstances, it was just and necessary to reopen the arguments on his side. If not, he would be put to irreparable loss and great hardship, he added. Meanwhile, III Additional Sessions Judge Anand, before whom Balaji was produced through video conferencing from Puzhal Prison here, extended the DMK leader's remand till April 4, 2024.
Balaji was arrested on June 14, 2023 by the ED in connection with a money laundering case linked to a cash-for-jobs scam when he was the Transport Minister during an earlier AIADMK regime. His multiple bail pleas have been rejected by the courts.
