Hours after Tamil Nadu Minister for Electricity, Prohibition & Excise and DMK leader V Senthil Balaji was taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case, he went through a coronary angiogram on Wednesday.
He has been advised bypass surgery “at the earliest”.
The ED on Tuesday raided Balaji’s office at the Secretariat and his residence at Greenways in Chennai before taking him away for questioning.
The search operation which lasted for 18 hours was in connection with a job-for-cash scam. The raids came after the Supreme Court allowed the probe agency to continue its investigation into the alleged job-for-cash scam against Balaji dating back to when he was a minister during the Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK regime.
The top court had also permitted the agency to proceed with its probe into the alleged money laundering case.
During interrogation, Balaji reportedly complained of uneasiness. The minister was arrested early Wednesday morning.
Balaji broke down while being taken to a hospital for a medical checkup by the ED on Wednesday morning.
There were dramatic scenes at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital in Chennai. The DMK leader was seen in tears while his supporters raised slogans against the ED.
The minister was bodily taken out of the ambulance as he kept weeping inconsolably .
“He is in the ICU. He was in an unconscious state and did not respond when he called him by his name. He is under observation… there is a swelling near his ear, doctors say there is variation in his ECG (electrocardiogram)… these are symptoms of torture,” DMK leader PK Sekar Babu said, as reported by NDTV.
Balaji’s wife has approached the Madras High Court against his arrest, and the court has agreed to an urgent hearing of the case. The DMK leader’s wife has claimed that Balaji was taken into custody by the ED without any notice or summons.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, who visited Balaji at the hospital, hit out at the Centre for the raids on Balaji and called it the “politics of intimidation”.
Stalin added said that conducting a search operation at the Secretariat is a violation of the federal structure of the country.
The arrest has drawn sharp reactions from opposition leaders, who accused the ruling BJP of targeting rival party leaders.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called it ‘vendetta politics’ by the Narendra Modi-led government.
In a statement, Kharge said, “This is nothing but political harassment and vendetta by the Modi government against those opposed to it. None of us in the Opposition will be intimidated by such brazen moves.”
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal, CPI general secretary D Raja and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah are among those who have slammed the Tamil Nadu minister’s arrest.