Chennai: The Supreme Court Monday dismissed two petitions of Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji and his wife against the Madras High Court order upholding the legality of his arrest in the money laundering case.
The court also allowed Enforcement Directorate (ED) to take him into custody for five days till Saturday (August 12).
Two separate petitions were filed by the minister and his wife S Megala in the top court, challenging the July 14 order of the Madras High Court which upheld his arrest by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with the cash-for-job scam that surfaced in 2015 in the stateās transport department when he was the transport minister.
Besides upholding the arrest of the minister, the Madras HC had also held as valid his subsequent remand in judicial custody by a sessions court.
The charges against Balaji pertained to his tenure as Transport Minister between 2011 and 2015, during the AIADMK regime. The case was taken up by the ED after the DMK came to power in Tamil Nadu.
Senthil Balaji was arrested on June 14 by the ED after an 18-hour-long interrogation and search of his official residence and chamber at the state Secretariat. He was hospitalised after the arrest due to chest pain and underwent a beating heart coronary artery bypass surgery subsequently.