Dramatic Scene as DMK Leader V Senthil Balaji Weeps in ED Custody

Tamil Nadu : V Senthil Balaji, a minister in the Tamil Nadu government and a leader in the DMK, cried as he was carried by the ED to the hospital for a checkup on Wednesday. The minister was taken into custody for suspected involvement in a money laundering scheme.

Mr. Balaji’s house was searched by the ED on Tuesday, and he was taken in for interrogation. After being questioned for many hours this morning, the minister was taken into custody.

Dramatic events unfolded at a government hospital in Chennai when the investigation agency brought Mr. Balaji for a medical checkup after his detention. In an ambulance, the DMK leader was seen openly sobbing as his followers chanted anti-Enforcement Directorate chants outside.

As he continued to weep, the minister was forcibly removed from the ambulance.

Lawyer and DMK lawmaker NR Elango reported that Mr. Balaji has been admitted to the intensive care unit. The ED’s status as his arrestee is unclear. It has been stated that no proper arrest procedures have been used.

I was there when Mr. Balaji was taken to the intensive care unit. His current health status is being assessed by doctors. When a patient reports being attacked, the attending physician is required by policy to take detailed notes on the patient’s injuries. Mr. Elango explained, “officially, we have not been informed (by ED) that he has been arrested.”

Udhayanidhi Stalin, the Minister for Sports in Tamil Nadu and the leader of the DMK’s Youth Wing, has confirmed that Senthil Balaji is now receiving medical attention. The law would be faced by us. Despite the BJP’s attempts to intimidate them, the DMK will not back down.

Mr. Balaji’s business colleagues throughout the state have recently been searched by Income Tax (IT) officials. This followed the Supreme Court’s decision to enable the Enforcement Directorate to proceed with its probe into cash-for-jobs claims against Mr. Balaji, which date back to his time as a minister during the AIADMK government headed by Jayalalithaa. The agency was given permission to continue its probe into the suspected money laundering case by the Supreme Court.

After losing their seats in the recent Karnataka assembly elections, the governing DMK accused the opposition BJP of trying to intimidate them.

MK Stalin, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, has condemned the BJP-led federal government for their “politics of intimidation” in conducting searches on Mr. Balaji.

On Tuesday, the ED searched Mr. Balaji’s home, office at the Tamil Nadu Secretariat, and the Karur district homes of his brother and an assistant. This “politics of threatening their political rivals through backdoor tactics” by the BJP, Chief Minister Stalin said in response to the Secretariat searches, “will not work.”

Mr. Stalin went on to say that a raid on the Secretariat was an attack on the country’s federal system.

Mr. Balaji is the DMK’s Karur District Secretary and the Minister of Electricity, Prohibition, and Excise.