Hours after Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case in the early hours of Wednesday, June 14, the government hospital where he has been admitted with complaints of chest pain has issued a medical bulletin on his health condition. The Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital in Chennai’s Omandurar Government Estate, where Senthil Balaji is admitted, said in its statement that the Minister requires a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), a heart bypass surgery. The bulletin stated that Senthil Balaji underwent a coronary angiogram at 10.40 am on June 14, which revealed triple vessel disease (an extreme form of coronary artery disease), and that bypass surgery is advised at the earliest.
During the early hours of Tuesday, Senthil Balaji was arrested in a money-laundering case, a day after the ED conducted searches at his premises in Chennai and Karur and in his office at the Secretariat. The searches were carried out in connection with a money laundering case pertaining to the transport job scams while Senthil Balaji was a Transport Minister between 2011 and 2015, in former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's cabinet, under All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)’s rule. ED officials locked the Minister’s chamber from inside the Secretariat and questioned the employees who work for the minister.
After 18 hours of searches by ED, at 1.30 am on June 14, he was informed that he was under arrest. Around 2.15 am, he was taken to the hospital at Omandurar Government Estate after he complained of chest pain. Visuals showed Senthil Balaji lying down in a car, crying in pain as he was brought to the hospital. According to hospital sources, doctors detected variation in his ECG and he was shifted to the Intensive Care Unit, where he was kept under medical observation.
The ED’s actions have been condemned by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and several Opposition leaders including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who termed the move as political harassment and vendetta by the Narendra Modi-led Union government against those opposed to it.