CHENNAI: DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday strongly condemned the arrest of minister V Senthil Balaji by the Enforcement Directorate and said the party would face the challenge legally and it cannot be cowed down by such intimidating tactics.
“Looks like Balaji was subjected to severe mental and physical torture that he suffered chest pain,” the CM said on Wednesday. “Even after the minster said he would cooperate, why should the ED torture him? Why did ED officials treat Senthil Balaji inhumanly violating all legal procedures? People are watching these repressive tactics and they will teach a befitting lesson in the 2024 LS polls,” the CM said.
The CM also said ED officials entered the state secretariat where government’s secret files are maintained without permission and enacted a drama in the chamber of Senthil Balaji in the guise of inquiry. “They tried to show that ED searches could be carried out even in the secretariat,” Stalin said.
‘Unaccounted deposits of Rs 1.6 crore made to Balaji, his wife’
The arrest of the minister evoked a sharp response from the DMK and its allies. Chief Minister M K Stalin, who visited Balaji in the hospital, said DMK cannot be cowed down by such intimidating tactics. Several other ministers, too, visited the hospital which resembled a fortress with gun-toting Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and state police force personnel present in sizeable numbers.
According to sources, the ED, while seeking the minister’s custody, told the court that had allegedly “misused” his office for illegal gratification and “engineered” a job racket scam in the state transport undertakings during 2014-15 with purported kickbacks paid by candidates through his associates. Calling him the “prime suspect” in the cash-for-jobs case, the federal probe agency also said in its custody papers that alleged unaccounted cash deposits worth about `1.60 crore were made in the bank accounts of Balaji and his wife.
Meanwhile, Stalin held a couple of meetings with legal experts and senior cabinet colleagues on Wednesday. As Senthil Balaji holds key portfolios, some senior ministers may be given temporary responsibility of his portfolios until the legal tangle is resolved. There is a possibility that Senthil Balaji may continue as a minister without a portfolio for some time, depending on the developments of the case in the coming days.
TN withdraws general consent for CBI probe
The DMK govt on Wednesday withdrew the general consent given to CBI in 1989 and 1992 for conducting investigation in TN without getting prior permission of the state.
(Inputs from R Sivakumar)