The Enforcement Directorate has filed a 3000-page chargesheet against Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji after he was earlier arrested in a money laundering case. After five days of questioning by the ED, he has now been taken to judicial custody until August 25.
The Supreme Court had earlier dismissed petitions filed by Senthil Balaji and his wife challenging a Madras High Court order upholding his arrest in the case. He was earlier under ED custody till August 12 on the basis of a sessions court order.
The ED had earlier claimed that Balaji "misused" his office for illegal gratification and "engineered" a job racket scam in the state transport undertakings during 2014-15 with purported kickbacks paid by candidates through his associates that includes Ashok Balaji and his personal assistants B Shanmugam and M Karthikeyan. "This led to jobs being awarded at the expense of deserving candidates," the ED alleged.
On August 10, the probe agency put a 2.49 acre land valued at more than Rs 30 crore belonging to the sister-in-law of Senthil Balaji, under freeze order, as part of the ongoing money laundering investigation against him.
