Jayakumar hits back at Ma Su for charges against EPS, AIADMK regime

CHENNAI: Rebutting State Health Minister Ma Subramanian and his charges against the previous AIADMK regimes regarding the cash-for-job scam, spokesperson and senior leader of the prime opposition D Jayakumar said that their government under the helms of J Jayalalithaa had taken action against then Transport Minister V Senthilbalaji and removed him from the Cabinet.

The former CM had also initiated legal action against him after obtaining complaints from the affected persons.

Senthilbalaji, who was given an opportunity to contest again in the 2016 Assembly polls, had not been included in the Cabinet, Jayakumar told media persons.

However, the present Chief Minister, MK Stalin, made him minister again, said Jayakumar to retaliate the charges that the scam took place in the Jayalalithaa's regime between 2011-2016.

Stating that the minister was blabbering and giving press statements without having basic data, Jayakumar slammed Subramanian that he was "unfit" to be a minister.

On corruption against former CM and AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami in highways tenders to the tune of Rs4,000 crore, Jayakumar defended that their party leader approached the Supreme Court and obtained a stay order against the CBI enquiry ordered by the Madras High Court. It issued the order without opening the sealed report submitted by the DVAC officials.

"The minister is unaware that his party senior functionary R S Bharathi, who filed a case, withdrew his case," Jayakumared sneered.

Countering the Health Minister's statement that Senthilbalaji's arrest is a "political vendetta", Jayakumar asked him to recall their leader's statement when the central agency raided the chamber of then Chief Secretary P Rama Mohan Rao in 2016.

"If the minister gives his WhatsApp number, I will share the video clips of their leader, who was then the opposition leader, regarding the raid, " he said and defended the ED officials that they followed the due legal process to arrest Senthilbalaji.

He cataloged the sequence of events and said the authorities have been carrying out their duty as per the direction of the Supreme Court.

He continued that the CM and his family benefitted through minister Senthilbalaji, who was arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act by the Enforcement Directorate, defending him to the core. Ministers are camping in the hospital where Senthilbalaji is admitted. The CM and his family did not show such intensity when Kanimozhi and A Raja were arrested in the 2G case, he said.