Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji faces legal trouble again as ED moves SC against his bail

Six months after his release on bail and being reinstated as a minister in Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s cabinet, Electricity, Excise and Prohibition Minister V. Senthil Balaji seems to be caught in a legal tangle once again. The Supreme Court is all set to hear on March 4 a review petition filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) seeking to recall his bail. The ED has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court flagging attempts by the minister to delay the trial court proceedings for three months.

In a 56-page affidavit citing specific instances leading to delay in the trial, the ED informed the apex court that prosecution witness number 4, S. Manivannan, a forensic expert with the Tamil Nadu government did not appear for hearing after Balaji was released on bail. “PW 4, a crucial witness in the case, Manivannan, a state government forensic expert, was summoned by the Ld, PSJ, Chennai on 13.09.2024 for his appearance on 19.09.2024. From the date on which Sh V. Senthil Balaji was released on bail, i.e., 26.09.2024, PW4 failed to appear continuously for two hearings (26.09.2024 and 30.09.2024) before the Ld. PSJ, Chennai and sought adjournments on health grounds. Subsequently, the Ld. PSJ, Chennai issued NbW and imposed a cost of Rs. 1,000 on 04.10.2024; he was compelled to present himself on account of the pending NbW,” the ED said in its affidavit, a copy of which is available with THE WEEK. 

The agency also alleged that the two dates coincided - first was on the day he was released on bail and second, four days after his release. While the expert appeared before the court after a non-bailable warrant was issued by the court, the ED said that the reasons given by him - hypertension and giddiness - “were not sufficient grounds” to defer the examination process. ED also gave further specific dates and details indicating that Balaji’s counsel deliberately delayed the cross-examination.

ED also said that the defence counsel did not examine the forensic expert between October 4, 2024, and January 27 this year, by filing an adjournment application due to the change of a senior counsel. The defence counsel, ED said, sought a cloned copy of digital evidence to examine the prosecution witness further.

“After the attendance of PW 4 was secured, the counsels for Sh. V. Senthil Balaji have deliberately failed to complete the cross-examination of PW 4 for nearly three months on 04.10.2024, 29.10.2024, 07.11.2024, 15.11.2024, 22.11.2024, 29.11.2024, 09.12.2024, 16.12.2024 and 02.01.2025 with no end in sight,” ED said in its affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court. 

“The aforementioned facts unequivocally demonstrate Senthil Balaji’s blatant disregard for the judicial process and his deliberate attempts to delay the trial. Despite this Court’s directive to expedite the trial, Senthil Balaji has drawn out the cross-examination of PW 4 on one pretext or another for nearly three months. This blatant disregard for the Supreme Court’s instructions is a clear attempt to procrastinate and delay the trial proceedings,” the agency detailed in its affidavit.

ED also said that the bail order should be recalled since Senthil Balaji violated the terms of the bail granted to him. “In the light of the foregoing, it is amply clear that Senthil Balaji has violated the direction given by this honourable Court by seeking adjournments on non-existent or frivolous grounds or creating hurdles in the early disposal of the cases mentioned above.”

ED arrested Balaji under the PMLA in a cash-for-job scam in July 2023, and he languished in a prison in Chennai for 471 days, till he was granted bail by the Supreme Court in September last year. He was questioned by the ED for 18 hours before the arrest at his residence and the agency also launched a search for his brother V. Ashok Kumar, who is allegedly absconding. 

The ED case stems from FIRs filed by the CB-CID police in Chennai, which accused Balaji of taking bribes for giving job orders when he was the transport minister in Jayalalithaa’s cabinet between 2011 and 2016. Though Balaji resigned from the minister post when he was in prison, Chief Minister Stalin re-inducted him into the cabinet within three days of his release on bail in September 2024. 

Earlier, in December last year, the Supreme Court had dismissed a review petition filed by Y. Balaji, one of the affected persons, seeking to recall Senthil Balaji’s bail. The Court then said that the September 26 judgement cannot be recalled as constitutional courts cannot allow the ED to use stringent bail conditions as a tool to incarcerate an accused without trial. The Court also said that it will amount to an infringement of his fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution. 

But, in another plea filed by K. Vidya Kumar, yet another victim of the cash-for-job scam, allegedly orchestrated by Senthil Balaji, a bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Okha and Augustine George Masih expressed surprise over the induction of Senthil Balaji in the cabinet, within three days of his release on bail. The Court also sought information on the number of victims of the offences and public servants who are witnesses in the case. 

However, sources close to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Balaji say that he has been acting as per the bail conditions imposed by the apex court - signing in the ED office in Chennai every Monday and Friday and appearing in the trial court. "We have been adhering to the bail conditions and he has not violated it even once," said a source close to Balaji. The source on conditions of anonymity told THE WEEK that Balaji did not have any role in dragging the witness examination as mentioned by the ED. 

This is the second time a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking for recall of his bail. Incidentally, Balaji’s popularity within the DMK and in the state has increased multifold after the Erode East bypoll. While senior minister S. Muthusamy was considered the in-charge for the Erode East bypoll, sources say Senthil Balaji played a crucial role in making Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi lose the deposit and make DMK candidate V.C. Chandirakumar gain more than one lakh votes. “Like earlier, he has brought the things in order at Coimbatore and Karur. If elections are held today, the DMK will sweep the polls in these two constituencies," said a DMK office-bearer in Coimbatore. 

In the past six months, he has been travelling frequently to Coimbatore and his home constituency Karur to meet party functionaries and organise political meetings. In Coimbatore, where DMK lost in all the 11 assembly segments in 2021 polls, Balaji had ensured that the party machinery was revamped so that they can sweep the polls. Also, during the recent rejig in the DMK organisation structure, a few of Balaji's supporters have been accommodated as office-bearers in the western districts. The party restructure in districts like Erode and Tiruppur, sources say, were done on the recommendations of Balaji.