TN minister Senthil Balaji not cooperating with probe: ED seeks ...
Jun 15, 2023 01:06 AM IST
Chennai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has sought custodial interrogation of the key accused, minister V Senthil Balaji on the grounds that he is not cooperating with the probe and that they have evidence which shows that he is guilty of money laundering, the federal agency said in its remand order. HT has seen a copy of the remand order.
After the SC gave them a go-ahead to continue investigation in May, ED said that in a month they have unearthed incriminating documents related to the alleged scam in recruitment of drivers, conductors, junior tradesman, junior engineers, assistant engineers in the state transport department and also established the relationship between Balaji and other accused such as his personal assistants.
Deputy Director and the Investigating Officer in this case, Karthik Dasari said that based on the materials in his possession, there are reasons to believe that the minister is guilty of the offence of money laundering under section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, (PMLA) 2002. The ED searched residence and secretariat office of Senthil Balaji on June 13.
ED has said in the remand application that the minister refused to sign and receive the summons on June 14 and inanimate them. “He started behaving in an intimidating manner, shouted and yelled at the officer that he is the sitting minister of the state,” the ED said in the remand order. “With no other option, in the presence of two witnesses, the petitioner attempted to record the statement of Sh. V Senthil Balaji but he has not responded to any of the questions posed. Therefore, he has been completely non-cooperative during the summon proceedings.”
“There was neither justification nor evidence to show that the source of huge cash deposits is from his genuine income,” the remand application said adding that he is likely to destroy evidence and influence witnesses.
“Considering his non-cooperation in the investigation, custodial interrogation is required for further investigation in the matter. He is required to be confronted with the other people, whose statements have been recorded so far during investigation under PMLA.” Besides transactions and materials gathered, the ED said the statements given by some of the accused, victims and witnesses clearly point to the offence of money laundering.
“He is also required to trace the end-use of the huge amounts of monies which appear to have been laundered in this case, for which he could not produce documents despite sufficient opportunity,” ED said.
ED also said that a bank statement analysis of the minister revealed that there have been cash deposits of ₹1.34 crore in the accounts of prime suspect Balaji and ₹29.55 lakh in his wife S Meghala’s account. “These cash deposits are huge compared to their incomes disclosed in ITRs (Income tax returns),” ED said.
When he was transport minister in the previous AIADMK regime, Balaji abused his official capacity along with his personal assistant B Shanmugam, and his brother V Ashok Kumar and one M Karthikeyan, said ED. The minister and his aides entered into a criminal conspiracy with the then managing directors of all state transport undertakings and other officers of transport corporations to obtain illegal gratification from candidates to recruit them as drivers, conductors, Junior Tradesmen, Junior Assistants, Junior Engineer and Assistant Engineer in the transport corporation. However, these candidates neither received a job nor a refund of the money they paid.
ED said that they issued multiple summons to the accused (Senthil Balaji and his aides) in 2022 but they never appeared and requested several adjournments. “This kind of behaviour clearly shows the evasive nature of these suspects,” ED said.
Meanwhile, Senthil Balaji has been sent to a judicial custody of 14 days till June 28 by Chennai principal district judge S Alli on Wednesday. On the same day, he was admitted to government Omandurar hospital after complaining of chest pain. Balaji underwent angiogram and was recommend an urgent bypass surgery. While the judge S Alli has allowed the minister to continue his medical treatment in hospital till further orders.
Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India. Divya is presently Assistant Editor of the Hindustan Times where she covers Tamil Nadu & Puducherry. She started her career as a broadcast journalist at NDTV-Hindu where she anchored and wrote prime time news bulletins. Later, she covered politics, development, mental health, child and disability rights for The Times of India. Divya has been a journalism fellow for several programs including the Asia Journalism Fellowship at Singapore and the KAS Media Asia- The Caravan for narrative journalism. Divya has a master's in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick, UK. As an independent journalist Divya has written for Indian and foreign publications on domestic and international affairs.
