Senthilbalaji denies reports of his name in Sekhar Reddy’s diary

“My name was not mentioned in the diary. If any of you show my name in the diary, I will take responsibility for it. Otherwise, the weekly magazines and social media should take responsibility (to prove it),” he told reporters here. He was responding to a question on former chief minister Edappadi K Palanisami asking whether the state government will conduct a raid on Minister Senthilbalaji’s residence as his name was mentioned in the Sekhar Reddy diary. The diary mentioning bribes paid to ministers, MLAs and officials were seized when the Income Tax Department conducted a raid at the premises connected to Sekhar Reddy in 2017.

Senthilbalaji dismissed the allegation saying that he was not part of the government when the raid happened. “I did not get any notice in this regard. If you have any questions regarding me or Tangedco, you can ask me directly,” he said, wondering how come social media post by someone is being carried as news without being verified. “Sometime back, all the news channels flashed that Egmore Court severely criticised him for not appearing before it. In fact, no such thing happened in reality. But, a news channel connected to the Opposition party first put out the news and it was copied by others,” he said.