T.N. Minister Senthilbalaji’s arrest | Third judge of Madras High Court rules in favour of Enforcement Directorate

Tamil Nadu Minister V. Senthilbalaji's habeas corpus petition (HCP) was ruled not maintainable by Madras High Court Justice C.V. Karthikeyan. He was arrested in a cash-for-jobs scam and questioned for 18 hours by the ED. Justice Chakravarthy found that the ED followed procedures scrupulously and the HCP was not maintainable. The case was sent back to the Division Bench to decide the period when the ED could take custody of the Minister.

Arrested Tamil Nadu Minister V. Senthilbalaji suffered a major setback at the Madras High Court on Friday, with Justice C.V. Karthikeyan, the third judge named by Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala following a split verdict by a Division Bench on July 4, ruling that a habeas corpus petition (HCP) filed by his wife Megala, is not maintainable.

Justice C.V. Karthikeyan held that the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is authorised to subject an accused person in a money laundering case to custodial interrogation, the HCP field by the Minister’s wife is not maintainable and that the ED can subject the Minister to custodial interrogation even after the expiry of 15 days from arrest. The petition accused the ED of not having followed due procedure while arresting her husband.

The judge did not concur with the verdict delivered by Justice J. Nisha Banu of the Division Bench and instead, aligned with the conclusions arrived at by Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy. The judge sent the case back to the Division Bench to decide when the ED could take actual custody of the Minister.

In his dissenting verdict, Justice Chakravarthy had cited a slew of Supreme Court verdicts and stated that an HCP could be entertained, after the passing of a judicial remand order, only in cases of absolute illegality or total non application of mind on the part of the detaining authority or lack of jurisdiction or wholesale disregard to fundamental rights.

No such exceptional circumstance had arisen in the present case since the ED had categorically stated that the Minister refused to receive the grounds of arrest at 1:39 am on June 14, 2023 though a perusal of the document clearly showed the details of the money laundering case registered against him as well as the reasons for resorting to arrest.

Minister Senthilbalaji was arrested in the wee hours, on June 14, 2023 in a cash-for-jobs scam that took place when he was the Minister for Transport between 2011 and 2015, during the AIADMK regime. Mr. Senthilbalaji was questioned for 18 hours by the ED and when he complained of chest pain, was taken to the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital at Omandurar Government Estate.

A coronary angiogram done the following morning revealed that he had triple vessel disease and doctors advised a coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Subsequently, he was admitted to a private hospital, after courts allowed the transfer. He underwent a coronary bypass surgery on June 21, 2023.