'Choose between ministership or bail': Supreme Court tells Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji

Expressing shock over the attitude of Tamil Nadu minister for electricity, prohibition and excise V. Senthil Balaji’s reluctance to respond, the Supreme Court on Wednesday took a stern view, warning the minister to choose between ministership or bail, while facing trial in the cash for jobs scam case. Balaji is accused in a money laundering case allegedly linked to the cash for jobs scam during his tenure as transport minister under former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa between 2011 and 2016.

 

Giving time till Monday, April 28, to decide, the court warned him that his bail would be cancelled if he didn’t resign from his post as minister. A bench of justices comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih while hearing a batch of applications seeking to recall Balaji’s bail on the ground that he was influencing the witnesses, took a strong objection to the fact that Balaji was sworn in as a minister as soon as he was granted bail. 

 

Justice Oka said that the minister was granted bail only on the grounds of long incarceration and delay in trial under Article 21. “He has not been granted bail on merits. He has been granted bail on possible violation of Article 21.” 

 

Justice Oka informed Balaji’s counsel Mukul Rohatgi that when Balaji was minister, categorical findings have been recorded about the manner in which he brought about settlement. 

 

“We did not grant him licence to assume your power where you will be able to influence the witnesses. We are giving you a choice between the post and freedom.” Stating that three occasions have been granted for the minister to make a statement, the court also noted that the past conduct of the minister shows that he had interfered in the proceedings in the predicate offence. 

 

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Balaji said that the trial could be shifted to another state if there was an apprehension of influence by him. “That will not serve the purpose. There are 1000 witnesses,” Justice Okha said. Arguing for one of the witnesses in the case, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, while alleging intimidation by Senthil Balaji, said that he could move out of the state for the case. 

 

The court also said that it would record the proceedings in the final order that it had made a mistake by ignoring the judgments against Balaji. “The entire hearing proceeded on the footing that he is no longer minister. We will accept our mistake,” Justice Oka said. When Kapil Sibal argued that the minister was not influencing any of the witnesses the court said, “You are preventing them from coming.” 

 

Balaji and the cash-for-jobs scam case 

 

Balaji was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in June 2023 in a case linked to a cash-for-job scam in the state’s transport department during his tenure as transport minister in the AIADMK regime from 2011-2016. 

 

The scam came to light in 2015 when Balaji was dropped from the erstwhile Jayalalithaa’s cabinet. A man named S. Devasahayam filed a complaint with the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in Chennai against a few functionaries in the transport department. He alleged that one Palani, a conductor at the transport department, demanded Rs 2,60,000 to get a job for his son at the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC). Though he paid the amount, his son didn't get the job. Devasahayam’s complaint had also named one Baskar, a junior assistant at the Saidapet Depot. Based on his complaint, the CCB registered an FIR against Palani, Baskar, another person named Kesavan at the transport department and others.

 

Incidentally, Balaji was the first minister in Stalin’s cabinet to come under the ED scanner.

India