New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted bail to former Tamil Nadu minister and sitting MLA Senthil Balaji in a money laundering case connected to cash for job scam.
Balaji, a DMK strong man from Karur in Tamil Nadu was arrested by ED in June 2023 and has been in jail for over 14 months. A bench of Justice AS Oka and Justice AG Masih in their verdict on Balaji’s bail said, “denial of bail and delay in prosecution cannot go hand in hand, so the accused is granted bail.”
However granting bail to Balaji, the apex court said that they had imposed stringent conditions on the accused while ordering his release on bail.
The allegation against Balaji is between 2011 and 2016 when he was the state transport minister, he entered into a conspiracy with his bother and personal staff to collect money from candidates seeking jobs in the transport department.
But complaints against Balaji were filed by numerous candidates who allegedly paid huge amounts of money but did not get the job. Based on these allegations the Enforcement Directorate registered a case against Balaji and arrested him.
Following his arrest, Balaji resigned as a minister in February this year. On Earlier occasions, Balaji’s bail petitions were dismissed by the trial court and Madras High Court.
It was against the high court judgment that Balaji approached the Supreme Court submitting that there was an inordinate delay in trial and there was little likelihood that it could be concluded in the near future.
Balaji’s lawyers besides arguing the delay aspect of the trial had submitted to the Supreme Court that there were errors in the ED investigation, like the Rs 1.3 cr found in his bank account was his agricultural income which the ED was branding as money collected from candidates seeking jobs between 2011 and 2016.
However, the ED had deflected these arguments saying that there was sufficient documentary evidence against him to prove his involvement in the cash-for-job scam which had an element of money laundering in it.
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