CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday delivered a split verdict on a habeas corpus petition (HCP) seeking to declare Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges was illegal and setting him free.
While Justice J Nisha Banu, presiding the bench, held that the HCP is maintainable and the ED was not entrusted to get police custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and ordered setting Senthil Balaji free, Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy dissented saying the petition was not maintainable as the petitioner has not made out a case to prove the remand was illegal.
The dissenting judge ruled that ED is entitled to take him under custody.
“It is in the interest of the detenue that he was admitted to the hospital due to his health condition. He was not under the custody of the ED for even a minute. So, the hospitalisation period can be excluded from the first fifteen days and the ED is entitled to take him under custody,” the dissenting judge ruled.
He ordered, “Therefore, HCP shall stand dismissed. The period from June 14 till such time the accused is fit for custody of the respondent shall be deducted from the initial period of fifteen days. The detenue accused shall continue to take treatment at the Kauvery Hospital until discharge or for a period of ten days from today or whichever is earlier. Thereafter, if he requires further treatment, it can be done only at the prison hospital.”
Since the judges differed on the matter, it will be placed before Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala for further orders.
The HCP was filed by Megala, wife of Senthil Balaji, after he was arrested by the ED in the wee hours of June 14 after a marathon search and grilling at his official residence.
After complaining of chest pain, he was admitted to the Govt Multi-Speciality Hospital where the doctors diagnosed him with blocks in the heart and recommended immediate surgery.
Based on an interim order of the division bench on the HCP, he was shifted to Kauvery Hospital and underwent bypass surgery.
In the meantime, the principal sessions court, which had ordered his judicial custody for fourteen days, granted police custody for the ED to interrogate him subject to his health conditions.
Since the doctors advised against custodial interrogation, the ED gave up the exercise.
Senthil Balaji was booked under PMLA by the ED in 2021 based on the FIR filed by the Central Crime Branch, of Chennai City police, on the cash-for-jobs scam committed when he was the Transport Minster during the AIADMK government.