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TN minister Senthil Balaji shifted to pvt hospital after HC order following arrest by ED
The High Court allowed the ED to constitute its own panel of doctors to examine the minister, also allowing them to visit him in the private hospital.
Chennai: The Madras high court on Thursday allowed Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji to be shifted to the private Kauvery hospital in Chennai from the Omandurar government hospital where he was admitted following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the wee hours of June 14.
The minister in the MK Stalin-led government was shifted to Kauvery Hospital following the high court order.
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The HC allowed the ED to constitute its own panel of doctors to examine the minister. The court also allowed them to also visit the minister in the private hospital to take stock of his health condition. The court clarified that the duration of Balaji’s hospital stay will be excluded while calculating the ED’s plea for custodial interrogation.
Balaji, TN electricity and prohibition and excise minister, was arrested on Wednesday by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in an alleged cash-for-jobs scam against him when he was the transport minister in the earlier AIADMK cabinet led by the late J Jayalalithaa. Balaji is in judicial custody until June 28. He was questioned for 18 hours and was admitted to the Omandurar hospital after 2.30am where he has been diagnosed with heart disease.
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A division bench of justices Nisha Banu and D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the interim order on Thursday based on a habeas corpus petition filed by the minister’s wife S Megala whose main plea is seeking his arrest to be declared illegal.
Senior advocate and DMK MP representing the minister submitted to the court that in Omandurar hospital, doctors had diagnosed the minister with three blocks in his heart advising a coronary artery bypass graft surgery at the earliest. He had also been examined by the doctors from Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). The ED, during the hearing, also insisted on a panel of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, to evaluate Balaji.
“The court has allowed either the doctors from AIIMS or any other panel of ED’s choice to verify if the medical treatment is right in Kauvery,” Elango told reporters after the hearing. Balaji’s bail petition has not yet come up for hearing.
The next hearing for the main habeas corpus petition will be held on June 22.
Initially, the case that came up before Madras HC was meant to be heard by a bench comprising Justices M Sundar and R Sakthivel on June 14 but the latter recused himself from the hearing, reportedly because he and the minister hail from the same district of Karur.
Later, on June 14, principal district judge S Alli sent him to judicial custody until June 28 after meeting Balaji in the government hospital. ED) has sought custodial interrogation of Balaji on the grounds that he is not cooperating with the probe and that they have evidence which shows that he is guilty of money laundering, the federal agency said in its remand order. After the Supreme Court allowed the ED to continue investigation on May 16, in a month the federal agency said that they have unearthed incriminating documents related to the alleged scam in recruitment in the state transport department and also established the relationship between Balaji and other accused, such as his personal assistants.
Tamil Nadu’s opposition AIADMK met Governor R N Ravi on Thursday evening seeking the removal of Balaji from the council of ministers. When he was arrested, chief minister M K Stalin should have removed him, said former AIADMK law minister C V Shunmugham who was part of the four-member delegation. “But the chief minister and the cabinet are treating him like a martyr and seeking sympathy. And this corruption actually happened during our term,” said Shunmugham, pointing to the then chief minister J Jayalalithaa dropping Balaji from the cabinet in 2015.
A file reallocating important portfolios of minister V Senthil Balaji who is hospitalised following his arrest by ED, was sent by chief minister M K Stalin to Governor R N Ravi on Thursday afternoon but he returned it saying the reasons are “misleading and incorrect” said higher education minister K Ponmudy in a late night press conference. “The CM said that since the minister is ill, his portfolios have to be reallocated, but the Governor returned it saying that he has not given the exact reason. And the reasons he’s (CM’s) given are misleading and incorrect,” said Ponmudy revealing the communication between the two. The Governor’s reply came at 6pm. Immediately the CM called for a meeting and responded to the Governor pressing him to accept it. “We think he will accept it and not behave like an agent of the BJP,” said Ponmudy.
