New Delhi: In a tough message to senior DMK leader V. Senthil Balaji, the Supreme Court on Wednesday told him to choose between his ministerial post in the M.K. Stalin-led Tamil Nadu Cabinet and bail in the money laundering case linked to an alleged cash-for-jobs scam.
A bench of Justices Abhay S. Oka and A.G. Masih cautioned Balaji that if he did not step down from his minister post, it would recall its bail order, noting that the top court had made a mistake by ignoring the judgments against him.
“We are giving him a choice. Freedom or post? There are findings recorded in the reported judgement of the court attributing a role to him in the predicate offence as minister. The judgment of the Madras High Court records how, as a minister, you tried to influence witnesses by entering into a settlement with them, based on which proceedings were quashed.”
The Justice Oka-led Bench was hearing an application seeking recall of its decision which had enlarged Balaji on bail on the ground that he may influence the case witnesses in his capacity as a minister.
The apex court asked Balaji, who was immediately inducted into the Tamil Nadu Cabinet after he was granted bail, to decide by Monday whether he preferred his liberty or his minister post.
“We grant bail, and the next day, you go and become a minister! Anybody will be bound to be under the impression that witnesses will be under pressure,” the top court had remarked in an earlier hearing, clarifying that its judgment granting bail required no interference on merits.
Balaji, who walked out of jail after spending over 450 days behind bars, was sworn in as minister on September 29 last year and assigned the portfolios of Electricity, Excise and Prohibition in the Tamil Nadu government. Serving as the Minister of Transport from 2011-2015 in the AIADMK government, he was elected as an MLA again from the Aruvarakurichi constituency in 2016. After the split in the AIADMK, he left the party and joined the DMK on December 14, 2018 and became the DMK district Secretary. He contested by-polls from Aruvakurichi in 2019 and later in the 2021 Assembly elections and became a minister for Electricity and Excise in the Stalin-led cabinet.
On June 14, 2023, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided Balaji’s house and other places in Chennai, Karur, and Coimbatore and interrogated him about a job for a cash scam while he served as the Transport Minister in the AIADMK-led government. After several hours of interrogation, Balaji was arrested and sent to judicial custody. He complained of chest pain, and a medical investigation found that he had three blocks in his coronary artery. Subsequently, he was subjected to an angioplasty at a private hospital. He continued in the private hospital for a few more days and was later shifted back to the Puzhal Central Prison.
Even as the opposition demanded the immediate removal of Balaji from the ministry, Chief Minister Stalin did not succumb to the pressure. However, there was immense demand for his resignation, and Balaji tendered his resignation on February 12, 2024, eight months after his arrest and ahead of his bail plea hearing in the Madras High Court. After the Supreme Court granted him bail, Balaji walked out of Puzhal Central Prison and was inducted again into the CM Stalin-led cabinet.
(IANS)
