Senthilbalaji’s brother Ashok named in ED’s fresh charge sheet

CHENNAI: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) filed a supplementary charge sheet against minister Senthilbalaji’s brother Ashok Kumar, who is on the run before a sessions court in the money laundering case connected to the job racket case.

The special public prosecutor for ED, N Ramesh, submitted the supplementary charge sheet to the city principal sessions court. The supplementary charge sheet reportedly includes the names of Ashok Kumar and 13 others for being hand in glove in the cash-for-jobs case.

Similarly, minister Senthilbalaji appeared before the special court hearing cases related to MPs/MLAs in the job racket case.

After recording the appearance, the court issued summons to the accused who were booked in the case and posted the matter on February 20 for further proceedings.

In 2015, under the previous AIADMK regime, several complaints were received at the central crime branch (CCB) against Senthilbalaji and his brother Ashok Kumar for offering jobs for cash in the Transport Department. The aggrieved raised a complaint that after receiving money, the accused did not provide any appointment order as promised.

The investigation agency filed the chargesheet after investigating the allegation that Senthilbalaji promised government jobs in the transport department to exchange cash as a bribe between 2014 and 2015 when he was the Transport Minister in the AIADMK government.

It may be noted that the prosecution has booked more than 2,000 individuals, including those who gave money for jobs as accused in the case. Based on the CCB case, the ED filed a money laundering case against Senthilbalaji and his brother.