The Madras High Court on Tuesday, July 4 passed a split verdict to release Minister Senthil Balaji, with Justice Nisha Banu ordering the release and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy differing. The court passed the order while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by the minister’s family after he was arrested on June 14 by officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in relation to a money-laundering case. The court had earlier, on June 15, allowed Senthil Balaji to be shifted to the Kauvery Hospital in Chennai from Omandurar Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital, where he underwent bypass surgery. The Minister is currently recovering at Kauvery Hospital.
In their order, Justice Banu allowed the Habeas Corpus petition (HCP) as maintainable and said that the Minister is “ordered to be set at liberty forthwith”, and Justice Chakravarthy differed with the same. The matter will now be heard by a three-judge bench, which will be constituted by the Chief Justice of the HC.
Senthil Balaji, on June 14, was admitted to the Omandurar hospital with complaints of chest pain, and the doctors said that the Minister requires a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), a heart bypass surgery. When the court heard the HCP of Senthil Balaji’s wife, it was sought to shift him to the Kauvery Hospital. The court had also said that a team of doctors constituted by the ED can regularly visit Senthil Balaji at Kauvery Hospital to take note of the treatment and that the hospitalisation period of the Minister will be excluded while considering ED's custody petition.
The HCP initially came up for a hearing before Justices M Sundar and R Sakthivel, but the latter recused himself from the hearing, and the bench was reconstituted. The ED arrested Senthil Balaji after nearly 18 hours of raids in his house, in a money-laundering case, pertaining to the transport job scams while he was the Transport Minister between 2011 and 2015, in former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's cabinet, under All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)’s rule.