Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Senthil Balaji was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Thursday (September 26), more than a year after his arrest. Balaji was arrested in June last year in a cash-for-jobs scam. He was then serving as the minister for electricity and prohibition and excise in the MK Stalin-led Tamil Nadu government. Stalin described the Supreme Court’s decision as “a triumph over a prolonged political conspiracy designed to crush his [Balaji's] spirit”. His bail plea had been rejected multiple times by both the district sessions court and the Madras High Court. The case dates back to Balaji's term as transport minister under the 2011-16 AIADMK government. A “compromise” later struck by some of the accused with some of the victims compounded his troubles. From advertisements to allegations In November 2014, the state-run Metropolitan Transport Corporation announced a recruitment drive through five separate advertisements. They aimed to fill positions for 746 drivers, 610 conductors, 261 junior tradesmen, 13 junior engineers, and 40 assistant engineers. The allegations of corruption emerged following these advertisements. ஆருயிர் சகோதரர் @V_Senthilbalaji அவர்களுக்கு 471 நாட்களுக்குப் பிறகு, உச்ச நீதிமன்றத்தால் பிணை கிடைத்திருக்கிறது. அமலாக்கத் துறையானது, அரசியல் எதிரிகளை ஒடுக்கும் துறையாக மாற்றப்பட்ட தற்போதைய சூழலில், அதற்கு உச்சநீதிமன்றம் ஒன்றே விடியலாக இருக்கிறது. எமர்ஜென்சி காலத்தில் கூட… — M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) September 26, 2024 A man named Devasagayam lodged the first complaint in October 2015, claiming he had given Rs 2.60 lakh to a conductor, Palani, to secure his son's job in the Transport Corporation. His son never got the job and his money was never returned, he claimed. This complaint didn't implicate Balaji, the then transport minister. In March 2016, a second individual, Gopi, filed a similar complaint. He alleged he had paid Rs 2.40 lakh to two individuals related to minister Balaji, for a conductor job he never received. Claiming police inaction, Gopi took his case to the Madras High Court, asking for his complaint to be registered and investigated. Roadblocks and legal wrangling The High Court initially dismissed Gopi's case and incorporated his complaint into the earlier case filed by Devasagayam. However, Gopi challenged this, arguing that Devasagayam’s case did not name the minister. Gopi’s demand was for an investigation extending beyond lower-rank officers and reaching up to the ministerial level. Taking cognizance of Gopi's plea, the HC ordered the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Branch, to probe beyond the lower ranks. However, the final police report in 2017 implicated only the 12 individuals mentioned in Devasagayam's complaint, excluding the minister and his relatives. Also, it did not invoke the stringent Prevention of Corruption Act. Simultaneously, more complaints surfaced. V Ganesh Kumar, an employee of the Transport Department, alleged in 2017 that Balaji and three others had instructed him to collect Rs 95 lakh from job aspirants. These individuals never got their jobs and the money was never refunded, he claimed. A case was filed in 2018, but again, it focused on criminal offences, omitting charges of corruption. The next year, one K Arulmani filed a similar complaint, claiming that Rs 40 lakh had been collected from his friends, ostensibly for employment opportunities, and paid to the minister's personal assistant. Yet again, the charges invoked failed to address the allegations of corruption. The ED steps in The absence of corruption charges in all official investigations led to one more petition, calling for a thorough investigation. Meanwhile, Balaji's political fortunes fluctuated. Following Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, Balaji sided with VK Sasikala’s faction during the ensuing AIADMK revolt. After being ousted from the AIADMK in 2017 along with the Sasikala faction and backing her nephew TTV Dhinakaran, Balaji joined the DMK in 2018, subsequently winning a seat in his native Karur and gaining a ministerial position in the new DMK cabinet in 2021. Following Balaji's rise, the minister's personal assistant Shanmugam and another accused R Sahayarajan sought to quash the criminal cases against them, claiming they had arrived at a “compromise” with the victims. The High Court complied with their request in one case. However, this “compromise”, seen as an admission of bribery, proved to be a double-edged sword, attracting the attention of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). New legal proceedings Towards the end of 2021, the ED began to dig into the case. When it sought documents related to the various cases, the High Court permitted the agency to inspect but not copy unmarked documents, a decision subsequently challenged. Furthermore, the dismissal of the case based on the "compromise" was also contested by an unsuccessful job candidate and an NGO, the Anti-Corruption Movement. This gave way to a slew of new legal proceedings, with the High Court ordering a re-investigation of the case and the ED issuing summons to the accused. After the HC quashed these summons, the matter went to the Supreme Court. The SC granted the ED the authority to continue with their investigation and inspect related documents. The court also dismissed Balaji's application for a Special Investigation Team. This is an updated version of an explainer published last year.
