The action against Electricity Minister V. Senthilbalaji has marked the arrest of a serving Minister of Tamil Nadu after a gap of over four years.
In January 2019, the then Youth Welfare and Sports Development Minister P. Balakrishna Reddy was convicted by a special court in a case of unlawful assembly and rioting in 1998 in Bagalur village, near Hosur, in Krishnagiri district. Later, he quit the post.
With respect to Mr. Senthilbalaji, the arrest has been made in connection with a money-laundering case wherein the trial is yet to begin. This was preceded by searches of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) at his chamber at the Secretariat on Tuesday, signalling for the first time that the Central agency carried out its operation aimed at a Minister, by going to Fort St. George also.
However, the most prominent instance in the last 10 years was the arrest of the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in September 2014 following her conviction in a disproportionate assets case.
A couple of former government officials say there is no need for law-enforcing agencies to secure permission of the government before carrying out searches. No nod was obtained at the time of the Income Tax Department searched the chamber of the then Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohan Rao in December 2016, they recall.
Powers under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act are so vast that the ED has the authority to issue summons; effect arrests and carry out searches. In July 2022, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of amendments to the law that provided to the ED and the Central government virtually unbridled powers to this effect, the former officials point out.
