SC to hear plea against HC order allowing Senthil Balaji to undergo bypass surgery at private hospital

Chennai: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on June 21 a plea filed by the Enforcement Directorate against an order of the Madras High Court allowing the shifting of arrested Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji, who is under medical treatment at a city government hospital, to a private facility.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned the matter before a vacation bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice M M Sundresh, seeking an urgent hearing.

The high court, which was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Balaji’s wife, gave the interim order.

The high court had said Balaji would continue to remain in judicial custody and allowed the probe agency to have its own team of doctors to examine the minister. The Tamil Nadu Electricity and Prohibition and Excise minister was arrested by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a cash for jobs scam against him when he was the transport minister in the earlier AIADMK cabinet led by late J Jayalalithaa.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that the Madras High Court, in its order passed on June 15, allowed the arrested Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji to get shifted to a private hospital from a government multi-speciality hospital where he is in judicial custody following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate.