Job racket case: Senthilbalaji to face fresh probe

CHENNAI: Dismissing the petition filed by V Senthilbalaji, Minister for Electricity, Prohibition & Excise to discharge him in the job racketeering case, the Madras High Court on Monday ordered a fresh investigation into the complaints accusing the minister of cheating several people by taking money assuring jobs in departments under him during his stint as Transport minister during 2011-2014.

Justice V Sivagnanam passed the orders on the minister’s prayer to quash the cases filed by the Central Crime Branch and the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), stating the cases were politically motivated and should be quashed.

The police department submitted that the investigation is undergoing in the case. The ED argued that the cases should not be quashed as they have initiated cases under the PMLA arising out of the FIRs filed by CCB. The complainants countered the arguments of the petitioner saying several poor people had parted with their earnings believing the job offer and the case should not be struck down.

After marathon arguments by the state police, Enforcement Directorate, and Senthilbalaji’s counsel, the judge directed the CCB to conduct a fresh probe on charges of cheating several people by collecting money under the guise of offering driver and conductor jobs in the Transport department.

The judge held that the investigating officer shall conduct de-nova reinvestigation without reference to the earlier investigation on record. “The investigation should be conducted ab initio comprehensively covering all the aspects so as to know whether the offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act is made out against the accused and collected from evidence,” the judge observed.

The court also noted, “on completion of the investigation, if the investigating officer makes out a case for cognizance of offences against the accused then the investigating officer of the predicate offence shall provide the relevant materials and documents to the Director of Enforcement so as to enable it to invoke its jurisdiction to commence its inquiry under the PMLA Act thereafter.”