CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has stayed the summons issued to Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji and two others by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.
A division bench of Justices R Mahadevan and S Ananthi granted stay on the summons calling Senthil Balaji, his brother Ashok Kumar, and Shanmugam for inquiry on May 13, 12 and 9 respectively. The summons were issued after the ED had registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) following the trails of alleged laundering of money from job seekers when Senthil Balaji was the Transport Minister in the AIADMK government during 2011-15.
The ED had approached the special court for cases against MPs/MLAs, where three job racketing cases were pending against the minister and the others, for furnishing it with all the case documents. However, the court refused to share unmarked documents. Challenging this, the ED petitioned the HC which ordered the special court to furnish the documents. However, the Supreme Court stayed the order of the HC after hearing petitions of the accused persons.
Later, Shanmugam, one of the accused, approached the HC seeking a stay on the summons.