New Delhi: A Chennai court docket on Thursday rejected arrested DMK minister V. Senthil Balaji’s plea searching for the dismissal of his 15-day remand, and denied him interim bail.
The ability, prohibition and excise minister was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) late Tuesday in a money-laundering probe and was despatched to judicial custody until 28 June.
Earlier than issuing the order, the Principal Choose of the Classes Courtroom, S. Alli, visited Balaji, 47, within the hospital the place he underwent an angioplasty Wednesday. The docs suggested an instantaneous bypass surgical procedure.
Balaji has been permitted to remain within the hospital for therapy till additional discover.
The minister was taken to a authorities hospital for a medical check-up after his arrest when he complained of chest ache.
His arrest got here after almost 18 hours of questioning concerning the cash-for-jobs rip-off when he was an AIADMK minister between 2011 and 2015.
DMK minister P.Okay. Sekar Babu has claimed that there have been indicators that Balaji was tortured.
As Balaji was being transported to the hospital, visuals confirmed him weeping from ache.
Babu advised reporters: “He’s within the intensive care unit. He was in a state of unconsciousness and didn’t reply to his title being known as. There’s a swelling close to his ear that’s beneath statement. Docs say his ECG (electrocardiogram) exhibits variations; these are signs of torture.”
Within the aftermath of the arrest by a central company, the Tamil Nadu authorities revoked the final consent beforehand granted to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct investigations throughout the state with out prior authorisation.
The federal government has launched a communique saying that a number of states, together with West Bengal, Rajasthan, Kerala, Mizoram, Punjab, and Telangana, have already withdrawn their consent to CBI probes.
This transfer has vital implications for the CBI’s potential to conduct investigations in these states. As per Part 6 of the Delhi Particular Police Institution Act, 1946, the CBI is required to acquire permission from the state authorities earlier than initiating an investigation into any case throughout the state.
Slamming the BJP for “anti-people, anti-democratic, vendetta politics”, the ruling DMK and its allies have additionally deliberate a public assembly in Coimbatore on Friday to sentence such “low-cost techniques”.
In a joint assertion, the political events stated: “BJP’s vendetta politics has reached Tamil Nadu too. BJP is conscious that they can not win in Tamil Nadu. Therefore, they’ve adopted low-cost techniques right here. The ED searches on the secretariat reveal the ‘vanity’ of BJP. Are they threatening us? We is not going to be cowed down by such techniques”
Earlier than his arrest, the ED had searched Balaji’s dwelling and even his workplace on the state secretariat on Tuesday.
Political slugfest
In the meantime, opposition AIADMK’s normal secretary Edappadi Okay. Palaniswami has demanded Balaji’s resignation on ethical grounds, citing the searches “as a shame to Tamil Nadu”.
“The ED searches are based mostly on a current order of the Supreme Courtroom. If he had cooperated as promised earlier, the issue wouldn’t have risen in any respect,” he stated.
The BJP Wednesday accused Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.Okay. Stalin of doublespeak, citing the DMK’s earlier claims that V. Senthil Balaji – when in AIADMK — was corrupt, however was now defending his personal minister. Balaji joined the DMK in 2018.
Syed Zafar Islam, a spokesman for the BJP, said at a press convention that the motion towards the state minister was based mostly on proof and the Supreme Courtroom’s observations.
“As opposition chief, M.Okay. Stalin had gone after Balaji however ‘compromised’ when the accused joined the DMK. In energy, the DMK chief then dropped all prices,” he alleged.
Additionally learn: Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji cries after arrest, BJP calls it drama, ‘screenplay by DMK’
