Opposition AIADMK on Friday stepped up its attack on Chief Minister MK Stalin over the dramatic arrest of his Cabinet member V Senthil Balaji by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case related to the jobs scam. Former Tamil Nadu CM and Leader of Opposition Edappadi Palaniswami alleged CM Stalin had visited Balaji at the hospital due to fear that he might reveal some information to the ED official.
"Not only Stalin but his ministers are also panicking due to Balaji's arrest. If he reveals the truth, then Stalin's political career will be affected...," claimed OPS.
Demand grows for the removal of Balaji's
AIADMK demanded the resignation of the CM and the removal of the arrested minister from the Cabinet on Thursday.
"Balaji should be immediately sacked from the Tamil Nadu Cabinet and the chief minister should resign from the post," said AIADMK leader D Jayakumar in Chennai.
Earlier, ED officials apprehended Balaji under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with an alleged cash for jobs scam in the state transport department.
The case against 47-year-old Balaji, who is the first member of the MK Stalin Cabinet to be arrested by a law enforcement agency, and his aides relates to his tenure as the state transport minister in the AIADMK government during 2011-15.
Dramatic visual of arrest
After his formal arrest at around 1.30 am on Wednesday, Balaji, who is the minister for Electricity, Prohibition and Excise, complained of chest pain and was admitted to a government hospital in Chennai. He underwent a coronary angiogram and was advised bypass surgery at the "earliest".
TV visuals showed Balaji feeling uneasy and crying while being brought to the hospital in a stretcher. He was arrested after a long session of questioning, official sources said.
A Chennai court later sent the minister to judicial custody till June 28 after which he sought permission to be shifted to a private hospital in Chennai for further treatment and also applied for interim bail.
The court reserved its orders including on the ED's plea for police custody of Balaji, the DMK strongman from Karur.
The ED called him the "prime suspect" in the case. The arrest followed multi-city searches by the ED on Tuesday on the premises linked to Balaji in Tamil Nadu as part of the probe into money laundering. The move by the ED came after the Supreme Court issued an order on May 16 allowing investigations in the case by the police as well as the ED.
Balaji's arrest sparks political slugfest
Stalin, who had slammed the ED raids against Balaji on Tuesday as "intimidation politics", met his Cabinet colleague at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital, Omandurar Estate.
Stalin, who is the DMK President, stepped up his attack on the BJP and charged the ED officials with "enacting a drama" in the name of inquiry and accused them of "physically and mentally troubling" Balaji. "They had pressured him to the point of him suffering chest pain," Stalin alleged in a statement.
TN BJP chief K Annamalai dismissed any charge of vindictive action by his party against the DMK and said the ED action was a culmination of a five-year probe into the cash for jobs scam.
BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam said Balaji's arrest is based on evidence and follows the Supreme Court's critical observation about the case involving the DMK leader.
The Opposition including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) condemned Balaji’s arrest and alleged that it was "political harassment and vendetta" by the Modi government.
"Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge condemns the late-night arrest of Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Shri V Senthil Balaji by the ED," the Congress said in a statement.
"This is nothing but political harassment and vendetta by the Modi government against those opposed to it. None of us in the Opposition will be intimidated by such brazen moves.”
The ED informed Sessions Court Principal Judge S Alli that Balaji allegedly "misused" his office for illegal gratification and "engineered" a job racket scam in the state transport undertakings during 2014-15 with purported kickbacks paid by candidates through his associates. The irregularities occurred in state-run Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) and Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC).
The federal probe agency also stated in its custody papers that alleged unaccounted cash deposits worth about Rs 1.60 crore were made in the bank accounts of Balaji and his wife.
The DMK claimed arrest-related procedures were not followed properly in the matter, which the ED denied.
State Minister P K Sekar Babu claimed there were "symptoms" that Balaji was "tortured".
"He is in the ICU. He was in an unconscious state and did not respond when we called him by his name. He is under observation...there is a swelling near his ear. Doctors say there is variation in his ECG (electrocardiogram)...these are symptoms of torture," Babu told reporters.
Balaji "underwent Coronary Angiogram at 10.40 am" today, a medical bulletin issued by the Director of the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital, Omandurar Estate, said.
"Coronory Angiogram revealed triple vessel disease, for which CABG (Coronary artery bypass graft) - Bypass Surgery is advised at the earliest," it said.
The constituents of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) announced a massive public meeting in Coimbatore on Friday to protest against the BJP over the issue.
A joint statement from SPA leaders including TNCC president K S Alagiri and state secretaries of CPI and CPI (M), R Mutharasan and K Balakrishnan, respectively and VCK founder Thol Thirumavalavan slammed the "anti-people" BJP-led NDA and said it has not done anything for the people in the last nine years in office.
(With PTI inputs)
