Chennai: A city court on Wednesday extended the remand of arrested Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji to judicial custody till July 26. Principal Sessions S Judge Alli extended the remand of Balaji on an application filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), following an interim order passed by Justice C V Karthikeyan of the Madras High Court permitting the Principal Sessions Judge to proceed further during the pendency of the hearing on the habeus corpus petition filed by the minister's wife.
On Tuesday, senior Counsel Kapil Sibal informed the Madras High Court that the Enforcement Directorate cannot seek police custody beyond the period of 15 days from the date of arrest, when the habeas corpus petition filed by Minister Senthil Balaji's wife came up for hearing before Justice C V Karthikeyan.
Balaji was arrested on June 14 by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a cash-for-jobs scam when he was Transport Minister during the earlier AIADMK regime. He has been since hospitalised and undergone a coronary bypass surgery.
The ECIR was registered on the basis of three FIRs booked against him by the local police in 2018 for his alleged involvement in a cash-for-job case when he was the Transport Minister in Jayalalithaa's Cabinet in 2015. The charges date back to his tenure as transport minister during the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government from 2011 to 2015. He joined the DMK in December 2018 and assumed office as the Electricity Minister after the party came to power in May 2021.
