V Senthil Balaji, wife challenge HC on upholding his arrest

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu minister

V Senthil Balaji

and his wife Megala have approached the Supreme Court challenging the Madras high court order of upholding his arrest by the ED in a money laundering case.
The minister in his plea submitted that the arrest and remand order were both illegal and contrary to law. He said non communication of reasons for arrest amounted to a violation of his fundamental right and the HC has erred in upholding the arrest.
Justice C V Karthikeyan, who was named as a third judge by the HC to hear the habeas corpus petition of Balaji’s wife, following a split verdict by a division bench, concurred with the conclusions arrived at by Justice D Bharatha

Chakravarthy

. Balaji’s arrest was upheld by Justice Chakravarthy.
In the split order, Justice

Nisha Banu

held that the ED had no power to take custody of Balaji, that the habeas corpus petition was maintainable, and that the time he spent in the hospital can’t be excluded from the period of remand the sessions court had granted for his custodial interrogation. But Justice Chakravarthy ruled the ED had the power to take

Balaji

into custody, and the days spent in treatment can be excluded from the period of custody granted by sessions court.