Minister Balaji undergoes tests for impending bypass at Chennai hospital

Incarcerated Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji is receiving treatment in the ICU at the Kauvery Hospital in Chennai, where he is undergoing more tests and the hospital’s doctors are monitoring his cardiac condition.

Minister Balaji who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on money laundering charges on Wednesday (June 14). Following a court relief, he was shifted to the Kauvery Main Hospital a day later from a government facility in the city. He also holds the prohibition and excise portfolio.

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According to a medical bulletin issued by Dr Aravindan Selvaraj, co-founder and executive director of the Kauvery Group of Hospitals, the minister was assessed by a team of doctors led by A R Raghuram, senior consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, who has advised early coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

“He is undergoing further tests to assess fitness for anaesthesia and based on the assessment, the surgery will be planned,” the medical bulletin added.

Balaji is being treated in the ICU with cardiac monitoring and being looked after by a multidisciplinary team of doctors and nurses, it added.

Balaji was arrested by the ED in a cash-for-jobs scam allegedly involving him when he was transport minister in the then CM J Jayalalithaa-led cabinet.

(With agency inputs)