Habeas Corpus Plea Filed In Madras High Court Against Senthil Balaji’s Arrest By ED, Justice Sakthivel Recuses

Senior Counsel NR Elango made a mentionion before the bench of Justice M Sundar and Justice R Sakthivel in the morning. Since the files had not been numbered then, the bench asked the counsel to again mention the matter in the afternoon. In the afternoon, however, Justice Sakthivel informed the counsels that he was recusing from the case. 

Elango earlier argued that the arrest was made without following due guidelines and without giving proper arrest intimation to Balaji's family. 

Balaji was arrested by the ED after an 18-hour long extensive search and interrogation on Tuesday at his official residence, his official chamber at the State Secretariat and his brother's residence. Following the search, in the early hours on Wednesday, Balaji was arrested by the ED.

The searches were conducted in connection with a cash-for-job Scam which allegedly occurred during Balaji's tenure as the Transportation Minister under the AIADMK regime between 2011-2016.

The high court in November last year had ordered a fresh inquiry into the scam observing that there were irregularities. The court had also dismissed a discharge petition by the Minister noting that there was enough material for framing of charges and that the case impacts the society.

Thereafter, the Supreme Court set aside the High Court order and also set aside a direction of the High Court staying the ED proceedings. The top court gave a nod to the agency to go ahead with the investigation by including the offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

While a new bench is yet to be constituted to hear the matter, Chennai Principal District and Sessions Judge S Alli, before whom a remand application was filed by the ED, has decided to personally visit the Omandurar Government Hospital to take a decision about his remand.