Supreme Court Restores Criminal Case Against DMK MLA Senthil Balaji Over Recruitment Scam Allegations

The bench comprising of Justice S. Abdul Nazeer, Justice A. S. Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian set aside the order of the High Court and restored the Criminal Complaint filed against Balaji, who is at present the Electricity Minister in the DMK Government.

The Court was hearing a petition assailing the orders of the Madras High Court where proceedings against then Transport Minister Senthil Balaji were quashed on the grounds that alleged victims had compromised and wanted the case to be quashed.

The case before the High Court was regarding a complaint case filed by a person working as a technical staff in the Metro Transport Corporation and came in contact with one Rajkumar. During that time vacancy had arisen in the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation for Driver and Conductor and Rajkumar informed the Complainant that employment can be obtained if money is paid for the same.

The Complainant somehow collected an amount of Rs. 40 lakh from several people and paid the amount to Shanmugam P. A. to Senthil Balaji in his presence. Senthil Balaji had assured him of employment but when the selection list came out his name was found missing. When the complainant had approached Rajkumar for repayment of the amount two cheques of Rs. 15 lakh were given to him which were dishonoured for lack of sufficient funds in the bank account. The accused kept avoiding repayment and was later threatened not pursue the matter.

Later when the complaint was lodged and chargesheet was filed 14 victims were cited as witnesses who were also defrauded in a similar way to the tune of Rs. 40 lakh on the promise to secure jobs of Driver or Conductor in Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation. During the course of the hearing it was argued by the Counsel for Shanmugam that it was consultation charges that were paid as the Petitioner in the matter ran a consultancy firm and the case had been foisted and blown out of proposition due to political animosity.

The High Court had later quashed the proceedings on the ground that a compromise had been reached and observed that, "The case is still at the stage of trial. By passage of time, the parties have decided to bury their hatchet and compromised the dispute amicably among themselves. This Court enquired both the parties and is satisfied that the parties have come to an amicable settlement between themselves. In view of the above, no useful purpose would be achieved by keeping the above case pending".

P. Dharmaraj vs Shanmugam and Ors. - SLP (Crl) 1354/2022