TN Minister Senthil Balaji's Judicial Custody Extended Till Aug 25

Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji who has been arrested over a money laundering case, has been produced before a sessions court on Saturday by the Enforcement Directorate. Principal Sessions Judge S Alli remanded him to judicial custody till August 25.

Earlier on August 7, the judge had permitted the ED to take custody of Senthil Balaji for 5 days for interrogation in connection with the case.

Balaji was arrested in June in connection with a cash-for-jobs scam while being Transport minister in the earlier AIADMK regime.

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji's plea challenging the custody by the Enforcement Directorate in the money laundering case. The Court allowed the Directorate of Enforcement to have Balaji's custody till August 12 in connection with the cash-for-jobs scam.

A Bench comprising Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh dismissed the petitions filed by Balaji and his wife Megala challenging the Madras High Court's judgment which held that the Enforcement Directorate was entitled to take Balaji into police custody. The Court also rejected their pleas that the ED's arrest was illegal.

The Court held that writ of habeas corpus was not maintainable against the arrest by the ED. The order of remand cannot be challenged in a habeas corpcorpus petition. If there is any violation of the procedure for arrest prescribed in Section 19 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, then action

The 2-judge bench also referred the judgment in Anupam Kulkarni, which held that police custody is not permissible beyond first 15 days of remand, to larger bench for reconsideration. Justice Sundresh read out the operative portion of the judgment, which was reserved on August 2.