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The Principal District and Sessions Court Chennai extended judicial custody of Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji in connection with a cash-for-job money laundering case.
Balaji's remand has been extended till January 22. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on June 14 last year under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). Earlier on January 5, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea seeking the removal of Balaji from the State Cabinet due to his implication in the money laundering case. A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan orally observed that a governor cannot dismiss a minister without the recommendation of the chief minister. The appeal was filed by ML Ravi against the Madras High Court, which left it to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to take a call on Balaji's continuation in the Tamil Nadu Cabinet as a Minister without portfolio. The former Minister for Electricity as well as Prohibition and Excise, Balaji was arrested on June 14 in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged cash-for-jobs scam when he was the Transport Minister during an earlier AIADMK regime. The ED had arrested Balaji in connection with an Enforcement Case Information Register (ECIR) filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2021. The ECIR was registered on the basis of three FIRs lodged against him by the local police in 2018 for his alleged involvement in a cash-for-job case when he was the Transport Minister in Jayalalithaa's Cabinet in 2015. The charges date back to his tenure as transport minister during the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government from 2011 to 2015. He joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in December 2018 and assumed office as the Electricity Minister after the party came to power in May 2021.(ANI)
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