Chennai sessions court seeks ED reply on Senthil Balaji's bail plea
Madras HC had ruled that the ASJ was to hear the bail petition filed by Balaji, who has been in judicial custody since the ED arrested him on June 14
A sessions court in Chennai on Monday (September 11) issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a bail petition filed by DMK Minister V Senthil Balaji, who was arrested by the agency in connection with a money-laundering case. Principal Sessions Judge (PSJ) S Alli, who issued the notice to the ED, posted the case to September 15 for further hearing.
When the bail petition came up for hearing, advocate N Ramesh, appearing for the ED, sought time to file a counter affidavit.
Advocate DR Arun Kumar, appearing for Senthil Balaji, requested the court to fix a short date for the next hearing. Following this, Judge Alli posted the hearing on the bail petition to September 15.
It may be recalled that after the Special Court set up for the trial in cases involving MPs and MLAs of Tamil Nadu and the PSJ refused to hear the bail petition of Senthil Balaji for want of jurisdiction, he moved the Madras High Court, which had on September 4 held that the bail petition filed by the minister had to be heard and disposed of only by the PSJ. Therefore, he filed the present bail petition before the PSJ.
Senthil Balaji was arrested by the ED on June 14 in connection with a money laundering case linked to cash-for-jobs scam when he was the transport minister during the previous AIADMK regime. The minister is in judicial custody.
(With agency inputs)
