The Enforcement Directorate arrested Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji in a money-laundering case on Wednesday. TN Bharatiya Janata Party chief K Annamalai on Wednesday said that the arrest of Senthilbalaji is a complete legal action and there is no political vendetta.
The Congress condemned the arrest of by the Enforcement Directorate and alleged it was nothing but “political harassment and vendetta” by the Modi government. Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) MP Sanjay Raut questioned why no action was taken on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Ministers despite several complaints made by the Opposition parties. Raut said that his party keeps sending complaints against BJP leaders with evidence to the central agencies but he is yet to hear a word from them.
Senthilbalaji has been arrested in Job Racket case. The case is linked to a job-for-cash scam in the state’s transport department, which allegedly occurred during Balaji’s tenure as Transport minister in the AIADMK regime from 2011-16. The case was booked in March 2021, on the eve of the Assembly elections, when Chennai police filed a chargesheet against Balaji and 46 others, which included senior retired and serving officers of various transport corporations. The charges related to a recruitment scam that shook the state in 2014-15.