The Madras High Court on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, refused to grant bail to former T.N. Minister V. Senthilbalaji in a money laundering case, in which he was arrested by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on June 14, 2023 and remains in judicial custody since then.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh dismissed the bail petition and directed the trial court to complete the trial within three months by conducting the proceedings on a day-to-day basis, as far as practicable, since the petitioner has been in jail for more than 250 days.
The judge had reserved orders on the bail plea on February 22, 2024, after hearing Senior Counsel C. Aryama Sundaram for the petitioner and Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan, assisted by Special Public Prosecutor N. Ramesh, for the ED.
The Chennai Central Crime Branch (CCB) police had registered multiple First Information Reports (FIRs) to investigate the scam. Subsequently, the ED registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 based on those FIRs.
The ECIR was registered after the petitioner had switched political loyalties and joined the DMK. He was serving as Minister for Electricity and Prohibition when the ED raided his residence on June 13, 2023, and arrested him on the intervening night between June 13 and June 14, 2023.
The dramatic midnight arrest led to the petitioner being admitted to a government hospital because he complained of chest pain. Subsequently, his wife filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court and got him transferred to a private hospital where he underwent heart surgery.
It was only after a month, he was moved from the private hospital to the central prison at Puzhal in Chennai. Even during his incarceration, he continued to be a Minister without portfolio and that became the reason for dismissal of his first bail petition filed on medical grounds.
Though he had sought bail solely on health grounds, Justice G. Jayachandran had dismissed that bail petition in October 2023 after taking note of the fact that he remained a Minister despite being in judicial custody and that his brother Ashok Kumar, a co-accused in the money laundering case, was absconding.
Subsequently, when the present second bail petition, filed on the merits of the case, came up for hearing before Justice Venkatesh on January 30, 2024, the judge asked how the petitioner could continue to be a Minister despite being in judicial custody for so long. Then, the judge pointed out that the service rules for even a last-grade government servant had been framed in such a way that he/she would be deemed to have been suspended from service on being incarcerated in any criminal case for more than 48 hours.
After the judge raised the query, the petitioner resigned from the Cabinet.
