TN Minister Senthil Balaji shifted from private hospital to Central Prison

Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji has been discharged from the hospital and moved to prison while continuing to be under judicial custody. He had been hospitalized for chest pains and underwent heart surgery. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on June 14 in a case dating back to 2014.

Updated on: Jul 18, 2023, 01:19:34 IST

By HT Correspondent

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Chennai: Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji was discharged from the Kauvery hospital and moved to the Puzhal Central prison on Monday, while continuing to be under judicial custody, the minister’s lawyer, seeking anonymity, said.

“He was discharged around 4.30 this evening and taken via an ambulance to prison,” the lawyer said.

From the time the Enforcement Directorate (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 Chennai Principal Sessions court extended Balaji’s judicial custody till July 26, after a third judge from the Madras high court, on July 15, dismissed a habeas corpus petition (HCP) filed by his wife S Megala, declaring his arrest ‘illegal’. The third judge, C V Karthikeyan, was appointed to examine a split verdict on the HCP pronounced by a two-judge division bench earlier. The Supreme Court directed the Madras high court to dispose of the case expeditiously.

Balaji, who is now a minister without a portfolio in the DMK cabinet, was shifted via an ambulance to prison while the ED was raiding another DMK minister, K Ponmudi and took him for questioning on Monday. However, it is unclear if Balaji is currently shifted to a prison cell or the prison hospital, given his health condition. On June 21, Balaji underwent a “Beating Heart Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery. The ED had got 8-days custody of the minister starting June 16 but they were allowed to interrogate him only within hospital premises, so the federal agency could not interrogate him.

The ED arrested Balaji on June 14 in a case dating back to 2014, when he was transport minister in the previous AIADMK regime.

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