The Enforcement Directorate arrested Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji earlier today after 18 hours of interrogation in connection with a money laundering case.
The ED sleuths on Tuesday raided the Chennai premises linked to Balaji and questioned him in a case that pertains to allegations when he was the transport minister during the AIADMK-led government from 2011 to 2015 before he switched to the DMK. The action came months after the Supreme Court allowed a police and ED probe into a cash-for-jobs scam.
Immediately upon his arrest, the DMK minister started experiencing ‘chest discomfort’ and reportedly ‘fell unconscious’. was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a government hospital in Chennai. There was high drama outside the hospital as the DMK leader broke down and appeared to writhe in pain while lying in a car.
#WATCH | Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji breaks down as ED officials took him into custody in connection with a money laundering case and brought him to Omandurar Government in Chennai for medical examination pic.twitter.com/aATSM9DQpu
— ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2023
Tamil Nadu’s HRCE minister P K Sekar Babu (who also jumped ship to DMK from AIADMK like Balaji) alleged the electricity minister had been ‘tortured.’ However, TN BJP vice president Narayanan Thirupathy termed it a complete drama by the ruling DMK and said it was the duty of Balaji to cooperate with the law enforcement agency.
BJP state President Annamalai was even more scathing in his indictment of the unfolding events, saying “Dravidian politics is a land of Drama, they do all things possible to avoid jail. The minister was fit yesterday, suddenly after arrest they are complaining of assault”. Annamalai also reminded TN CM Stalin that 7 years back he himself had called Balaji (who was then in AIADMK) the ‘most corrupt person in India’ and blamed him for the very same cash-for-jobs scam for which the latter has been arrested today.
Annamalai: "The whole DMK cabinet is sitting inside an hospital trying to protect an accused. Does the CM work for Senthil Balaji or for 8 Cr people? He needs sack the minister.
— Cogito (@cogitoiam) June 14, 2023
Dravidian politics is a land of Drama, they do all things possible to avoid jail. The minister was… pic.twitter.com/vNszgiXLwH
Addressing the media, DMK leader and Tamil Nadu Minister for Sports Development and Youth Welfare Udayanidhi Stalin said that the ruling party cannot be ‘cowed down’ by the intimidation tactics of the Central government.
The Congress has also termed the ED action ‘vendetta politics against those who oppose BJP’.
Earlier on Tuesday, the ED had conducted searches at the official residence of Balaji and at the office of the minister in the Secretariat. The Income Tax department had conducted raids at the premises of several people linked to the minister during the last week of May. The I-T officials had complained that the supporters of the minister’s brother had assaulted them.
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