Senthil Balaji to skip ED summons after being booked under Money Laundering Act

DMK Minister Senthil Balaji will not be appearing before the Enforcement Directorate officials in Madurai on Tuesday. According to reports, the Electricity, Prohibition and Excise Minister of the Tamil Nadu government has sought a month’s time citing the ongoing Tamil Nadu Assembly session. The Enforcement Directorate had issued a summons to the minister to appear before its investigating officials on Tuesday, August 11.

Earlier the Tamil Nadu Police Central Crime Branch had registered three cases against Senthil Balaji on charges of cheating, while he was the Transport Minister in the previous AIADMK government. The Enforcement Directorate case is based on these cases against Balaji, one of which was quashed by the Madras High Court later.

The Crime Branch’s First Information Report (FIR) states that Senthil Balaji had entered into a conspiracy with senior officials of the State Transport Undertakings or STUs to deny jobs to meritorious candidates and instead, unilaterally appoint ineligible candidates in driver, conductors, assistant engineer, junior engineer etc in these STUs.

Certain senior officials of these STUs were also charged with altering the interview marks of candidates in order to appoint people they preferred while ignoring deserving candidates. A chargesheet filed in March 2021 by the Chennai Crime Branch had also raised serious allegations against Senthil Balaji, including corruption charges in the recruitment process.  The officials were also accused of not following communal reservation and also of tampering the registers.

A report on the Hindu says that the charge sheet had stated that the officials had tampered with the name, application number, interview number, caste, educational marks, interview marks, and other details in the personnel section of the book to offer jobs to ineligible candidates.

V Senthil Balaji was formerly an AIADMK leader who moved to the DMK and contested elections from the Karur assembly constituency. He is now part of the cabinet as Minister for Electricity, Prohibition, Non-Conventional Energy Development, Molasses etc.