NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, JUNE 13
Throwing the well settled norms, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths, who raided the official residence of Tamil Nadu electricity minister, Senthil Balaji on Tuesday morning have now reached his office in the Secretariat without the permission of the Chief Secretary.
- In May, the Income Tax department had conducted marathon raids at the residences of Senthil Balaji and his associates, including some contractors
- The BJP’s politics of threatening their political rivals through backdoor methods instead of confronting them politically won’t work for long: CM Stalin
According to the information available, only three office staff were present in the office of Senthil Balaji during the raid. Sources in the secretariat said that the ED team was inspecting certain documents in the office.
Condemning this, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday said that the BJP’s politics of threatening their political rivals through backdoor methods instead of confronting them politically won’t work for long.
“The BJP has been controlling its political opponents through the investigative agencies at its disposal. There have been several examples of this from across the country,” MK Stalin said.
“Senthil Balaji stated that he will extend full cooperation to any kind of investigation. Then what was the need to carry out raids at the official chambers of the minister at the secretariat premises? Was it to show that they are capable of carrying out raids at the secretariat or to threaten?” he questioned.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin alleged that the raids were “politically motivated”.
“What does it mean when such action is carried out just days after the visit of the Union Home Minister to Chennai? He criticised the DMK and govt very strongly during his public speech. We had given our clarification too,” MK Stalin said.
He said that the raids at the secretariat were “against the values of cooperative federalism”.
“Even when the income tax raided the then chief secretary Ram Mohan Rao in 2016 inside the secretariat, I had issued a statement condemning the same, even when the ruling AIADMK did not do so,” MK Stalin said. “It doesn’t matter who is getting raided, but it matters where it’s happening.”
People are watching the intimidation politics of BJP, MK Stalin said on Tuesday.
The DMK organising secretary, RS Bharathi said that the central government was acting against the DMK leaders as it was unable to digest the popularity of the DMK and its leaders in the state.
“It is political vendetta, it is against the democratic practices. The ED is not even allowing the advocates to meet Balaji since morning,” DMK organising secretary RS Bharathi informed the media.
The Enforcement Directorate conducted searches against Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji and some others as part of a money laundering investigation.
The minister, a DMK strongman from Karur district, said he was not aware of what the officials had come searching for at his premises and assured total cooperation in the probe.
The raids are being carried out at Balaji’s premises in the state capital Chennai and his native Karur.
