ED raises objection to quashing of job fraud case against Min

CHENNAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) raised strong objections to quashing of the cases filed against Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji for allegedly cheating people by getting money with a promise of offering them jobs in the transport department.

Enforcement Directorate’s standing counsel N Ramesh made this submission before Justice V Sivagnanam. The judge was hearing a petition filed by Senthilbalaji to quash the cases booked against him by the ED, which are pending with the special court trying MPs and MLAs.

The ED informed the court that the accused here is a powerful person in the ruling party and the case was filed only on the basis of the charges made against the petitioner.

While one of the complainants submitted through his counsel that he has entered into a compromise with the accused in the said case and was ready to withdraw the complaint, ED counsel said that there is something unnatural in this submission.

He further argued that the complainant who paid Rs 2.60 lakh for the job and lodged the complaint is spending huge money for conducting the case to withdraw the same.

Recording the submissions, the judge adjourned the matter to October 28 for hearing further arguments.

The case of ED is derived from the cases booked in the state on charges that when Senthilbalaji served as a transport minister from 2011 to 2015, he and his men allegedly cheated several people by getting a huge sum of money under the guise of offering jobs in the transport department.