CHENNAI: Former minister and DMK MLA V Senthil Balaji and his brother R V Ashok Kumar failed to appear before the Triplicane police on Monday in connection with an inquiry into the alleged Rs 35-crore bribery attempt and intimidation targeting TVK’s Uthangarai MLA Dr N Ilaiyaraja.
While a Look Out Circular (LOC), issued on Saturday, is in effect against the duo to prevent them from leaving the country, police sources said they would decide the next course of action after consulting legal experts.
Police said that the summonses were served to Balaji’s father V Velusamy at Rameswarapatti village in Karur on Saturday since the whereabouts of the brothers was not known. If required, another set of summons and a subsequent (third) may be issued to them. Failure to appear for these summons could result in their arrest, sources added.
However, a senior police officer said that once a person’s name is added as an accused in a case, issuing second and third summons is not mandatory. The investigating officer (IO) can arrest the accused by invoking Section 35 (5) of the BNS, and the decision rests entirely with the IO, the officer added.
Meanwhile, the Madras High Court is likely to take up on Wednesday an anticipatory bail petition filed by Ashok Kumar. When the matter came up for hearing on Monday before Justice C Kumarappan, the government advocate for the criminal side requested to transfer the case to the single judge bench dealing with cases against MP/MLAs.
Subsequently, the judge directed the Registry of the high court to list the matter before the appropriate bench preferably on July 8. He further directed the respondent police to file counter-affidavit in the case by then, even though the government advocate had sought more time to file the same.
The case stems from Ilaiyaraja’s complaint alleging a `35-crore bribery attempt aimed at pressuring him to vote against Speaker JCD Prabhakar in a proposed no-confidence motion in the Assembly. Following which, the police registered a case under Sections 61 (2) (a) and 351 (3) of the BNS and sections 8 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Senthil Balaji and Ashok were added in the FIR on Wednesday. So far a total of nine persons have been arrested in the case.