CHENNAI: The AIADMK and the BJP on Wednesday defended the searches conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the office of Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji in the state secretariat and the minister’s residences.
While Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswamy said the arrest of Balaji was a culmination of investigations of the ED which has been going on for the past few years, BJP state president K Annamalai said the DMK is wrong in calling the arrest of Balaji "a political vendetta".
Talking to reporters at Vanagaram, Palaniswamy said the ED had filed a case against Balaji around four years ago regarding the alleged cash-for-jobs scam and that an investigation was going on. The ED had sent many summonses to Balaji, already seeking an explanation, he said.
"Recently, the Supreme Court gave a directive to the ED to investigate this case within 60 days and take action. The court said if it is not done, it would form a special monitoring committee to pursue the investigation in the case against Balaji. Based on this verdict, the ED sleuths searched the residence and office premises of Balaji and arrested him. Balaji's arrest has not happened suddenly. It results from a continuous investigation by the ED," Palaniswamy explained.
Palaniswamy also said that, as of now, there are around 6,000 TASMAC shops in the state and that no tender has been called for running bars in these shops. “For the past two years, illegal bars have been running. There are reports that huge revenue running to thousands of crores of rupees through these bars that should have gone to the state exchequer has been going to some of those who are at the helm of affairs. We have lodged complaints with the governor twice,” he added.
The Tamil Nadu Leader of Opposition also recalled that when the Income Tax Department had raided the office of the state chief secretary in 2016, Chief Minister MK Stalin, as the then-LoP, had said that the I-T department had conducted a raid only because there was evidence.
Palaniswami remarked that by bemoaning Senthil Balaji's arrest now, Stalin was revealing his double standards.
Meanwhile, BJP state president K Annamalai said that the ED searches at the premises linked to Senthil Balaji were legal and that these cannot be termed as "political vendetta."
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, Annamalai denied DMK's charge that the ED searches and arrest of Balaji were vindictive. He pointed out that Stalin, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, had charged that Balaji was a corrupt person and had demanded an investigation.
Annamalai also said that the ED had conducted the search as per the verdict of the Supreme Court and that the Opposition parties were trying to politicize the issue.