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Tamil Nadu: Top court to finalise dates to question Balaji, says HC
Declining to pass an order on the dates for the custodial interrogation of minister V Senthil Balaji by Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Madras high court on Tuesday left its decision to the Supreme Court
Chennai: Declining to pass an order on the dates for the custodial interrogation of minister V Senthil Balaji by Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Madras high court on Tuesday left its decision to the Supreme Court.
In the case pertaining to the habeas corpus petition filed by the minister’s wife, the third judge C V Karthikeyan on July 14 found legality in Balaji’s arrest, after a division bench had delivered a split verdict earlier on July 4. The third judge left it to the discretion of the same division bench of justices J Nisha Banu and D Bharatha Chakravarthy to decide on the dates for ED’s custodial interrogation.
Justices Banu and Chakravarthy decided to close the matter since the appeals in this case are pending before the Supreme Court. The minister and his wife, S Megala have filed two separate petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the July 14 order of the third judge.
“I cannot decide the date. I firmly stand by my judgement setting him free,” Justice Banu said on Tuesday. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior counsel N R Elango representing the ED and the minister respectively were present for the hearing.
Tamil Nadu’s law minister S Regupathy dismissed speculation that the minister was enjoying privileges inside prison.
On July 17,the minister was discharged from the Kauvery hospital and moved to the Puzhal Central prison, while continuing to be under judicial custody until July 26. From the time the ED arrested him on June 14, Balaji had been hospitalised for chest pains, initially at a government hospital and then at a private hospital for heart surgery. “The facilities provided for any other prisoner is what is being provided for him (Balaji,” the law minister told reporters. “It is not possible to give any special treatment. Since the case is being heard in the high court and Supreme court, some are spreading false news. But, there is nothing extra provided for him because he is a minister in the DMK. the chief minister will allow no such thing.”
Though a session court in Chennai gave ED eight days custody, the agency couldn’t investigate the minister since he was in the hospital. The ED arrested Balaji on June 14 in a case dating back to 2014, when he was transport minister in the previous AIADMK regime. He remains a minister without portfolio in the current DMK government.
