Senthilbalaji bail plea: City Court seeks ED's response

CHENNAI: A sessions court here on Monday ordered issuing of notice to the Enforcement Directorate on a bail petition filed by DMK Minister V Senthilbalaji, who was arrested by the agency in connection with a money laundering case. Principal Sessions Judge S Alli, who issued the notice to the ED, posted to September 15, for further hearing of the case. When the bail petition came up for hearing, advocate N Ramesh, appearing for ED, sought time to file a counter affidavit.

Advocate D R Arun Kumar, appearing for Senthilbalaji requested the court to fix a short date for the next hearing. Following this, Judge Alli posted to September 15, for further hearing on the bail petition.

It may be recalled that after the Special Court for the trial of cases relating to MPs and MLAs of Tamil Nadu and the PSJ refused to hear the bail petition of Senthilbalaji 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 only by the PSJ. Therefore, he filed the present bail petition before the PSJ.

Senthilbalaji 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 and he is in judicial custody till now.