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Tamil Nadu Minister for Electricity, Prohibition, and Excise V Senthil Balaji has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on June 14 in connection with a cash for job scam. The transport cash for job scam came to light in 2015 when a man named Devasahayam S filed a complaint with the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in Chennai. The complainant alleged that he was on the lookout for a government job for his son.
C Palani, a conductor in the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 2,60,000 to arrange a job for Devasahayam’s son. The complainant further alleged that he would seek the help of Baskar, who was working as a Junior Assistant at the Saidapet Depot to get the job. However, the duo failed to keep the promise and even after six months, Devasahayam’s son got neither the order nor was the money returned to him.
After Devasahayam filed the complaint, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the Chennai Police at the CCB against Baskar, Palani, Kesavan, and others who claimed that they would get MTC driver, conductor and mechanic jobs and later cheated them. One victim who had filed a complaint alleged that Rs 2.31 crore was handed over to Senthil Balaji, who held the portfolio of Transport in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government, in the presence of Baskar, the Minister’s brother Ashok Kumar and brother-in-law Karthik.
While the case was being investigated, in 2016, another victim named Gopi lodged a similar complaint with the Chennai Commissioner of Police. Gopi had also approached the Madras High Court seeking a probe into the issue. The Court then ordered a detailed investigation and directed the CCB officials to go beyond the lower level officials and find out where Rs 2.31 crore given by Gopi had gone. The final report on the case that was submitted to the Metropolitan Magistrate Court for CCB and CB-CID in 2017 alleges that a total of Rs 3.87 crore was collected from several aspiring candidates and was given to Baskar. The report said that he spent a portion of it gambling on horse races and handed over the remaining to other junior officials. The chargesheet named 11 accused persons, Baskar being accused No.1. Everyone named in the chargesheet were junior level staff members.
Unsatisfied with the CCB’s probe, one more victim, RB Arun, filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking further investigation into the matter. Madras High Court Judge MS Ramesh took note of the previous directive provided by the court to investigate the role of higher officials and ordered a fresh probe into the case. The CCB then investigated the matter against and filed another chargesheet in 2021, naming 47 persons, including Senthil Balaji, his brother Ashok Kumar and his brother-in-law Karthik, former managing directors of transport corporations, joint managing director, joint director (public relations), deputy director (public relations), among other staff members.
The final report charged Senthil Balaji and his close associates Shanmugam, Karthikeyan and Karthik of collecting data from the State Transport Corporation through the senior level staff and collating the complete data of aspiring candidates. He was also accused of issuing job appointment orders without following reservations and altering the interview marks of candidates.
Senthil Balaji joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in 2018. After the DMK came to power in 2021, the interest in the case waned. In February 2022, Baskar, who was named as a co-accused, died under mysterious circumstances, His brother Boopathy told TNM that he was “under pressure due to work-related issues”.
A few days after his death, an FIR was registered by the Zam Bazaar police in Chennai after Baskar’s mother Vimala filed a complaint. She provided the police with a ‘confession statement’ that was found in Baskar’s bag and asked the police to investigate based on that. When TNM reached out to the Zam Bazaar police station, an official said that Baskar blamed his co-accused for his death. Another police official who spoke to TNM said that he was ready to turn approver in the case and the CCB officials were recording his statements.