ED claims jailed T.N. Minister V. Senthilbalaji is hale and healthy, strongly opposes his bail plea
The HinduThe Madras High Court on Monday, October 16, 2023 reserved its orders on a bail petition filed by jailed T.N. To get today’s top stories from the State in your inbox, subscribe to our Tamil Nadu Today newsletter The counter affidavit, filed through Special Public Prosecutor N. Ramesh, refuted the averment of the Minister without portfolio that “he is sick”, and, therefore, entitled for bail solely on medical grounds. It described as “completely and factually incorrect” the Minister’s claim that the money laundering case was booked on the basis of a “false case” of job racketeering registered against him by the State police. Thereafter, once again from August 12 till date, he was at the prison hospital “with all the facilities”, and hence, his contention of having suffered incarceration for 117 days was an “unnecessary overemphasis,” the officer said and refuted the Minister’s claim that his recovery from heart surgery was very slow. Since the Minister’s brother Ashok Kumar, a co-accused person in the case, has been absconding for a long time, the ED said the prosecution might suffer if the Minister was let out on bail.