Madras High Court Denies Bail To Former Minister Senthil Balaji In Money Laundering Case, Directs Trial Be Completed In 3 Months

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Home/High Courts/Madras High Court/Breaking: Madras High Court Denies…
Breaking: Madras High Court Denies Bail To Former Minister Senthil Balaji In Money Laundering Case, Directs Trial Be Completed In 3 Months
Upasana Sajeev
28 Feb 2024 10:35 AM

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The Madras High Court has dismissed the bail plea of MLA and former Minister Senthil Balaji. Balaji was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in June last year in a cash-for-jobs money laundering case.

Justice Anand Venkatesh on Wednesday observed that there was no merits in the bail plea filed by Balaji. The court however directed the Special court to complete trial in the case within a period of 3 months.

Also Read – DGP Has No Power To Order Further Investigation That Too By Transferring Probe From One Agency To Another: Madras High Court
Previously, Senior Advocate Aryama Sundaram, appearing for Balaji had submitted that for the purpose of deciding bail under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, it was enough for the accused to put a dent on the materials relied upon by the prosecution. Sundaram argued that in the present case, the accused has gone a step further and put a dent on the only material relied upon by the prosecution and has thus questioned the probative value of the evidence.

Also Read – Madras High Court Directs UIDAI To Provide Aadhaar Details Of Murder-Accused PFI Member, Says Details Necessary For NIA’s Probe

Balaji had also challenged the prosecution materials and alleged that the materials had been tampered with by the agency.

The ED, on the other hand, argued that the court could not venture into a mini trial at the stage of considering bail and even if Balaji had resigned from his Ministerial post, he was still an MLA and could influence the witnesses. The ED also stressed that Balaji had committed a crime against the society and by favouring some candidates, the level playing field of the other candidates was affected thus violating their rights under Article 14 of the Constitution.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Mad) 87

Case Title: V Senthil Balaji v Deputy Director

Case No: CRL OP 1525 of 2024

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Justice Anand VenkateshSenthil BalajiBail Pleacash for jobs scamEnforcement DirectoratePMLA

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DGP Has No Power To Order Further Investigation That Too By Transferring Probe From One Agency To Another: Madras High Court
Upasana Sajeev
27 Feb 2024 5:29 PM

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The Madras High Court recently set aside an order of the Director General of Police transferring the investigation in a case from the state police to the Crime Branch of CID. The court held that the DGP had no powers to order for fresh investigation by transferring the trial to another agency and that the order was legally not sustainable.

Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan observed that only a court could order for fresh investigation or re-investigation and by filing a new FIR in the guise of conducting further investigation, the DGP and the CB-CID had played with the court. The court added that what had prompted the DGP to suo motu order transfer of investigation was a “million dollaw question”.

“This Court shocked to see that the first respondent ordered for further investigation by transferring the investigation from the file of the fourth respondent to the file of the fifth respondent without even referring to the final report in Cr.No.98 of 2019 and without any request made by either accused or by complainant. It shows the influence of the accused with the police officials,” the court observed.

Background

The petitioner, Lakshmipathy had filed a complaint against two men accusing them of installing CCTV cameras projecting the restroom meant for women working on his campus. Based on the complaint, a case was registered for offences under Se