SC unhappy over Senthil’s reinstatement as minister

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said it was “terribly wrong” to appoint DMK leader V Senthil Balaji as a minister in the Tamil Nadu government days after he was granted bail in a money laundering case over the cash-for-job “scam”.

A bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih said a large number of witnesses were public officials and sought response of the state government on the pending cases against Balaji.

“It can’t be axiomatic that the moment a person is released he becomes a minister, there is something terribly wrong. Because there may be cases and cases where somebody is being framed. In the facts of the case we will have to consider,” it remarked.

The bench further sought the “record on the number of witnesses which are required to be examined in the cases”.

“They will also state how many victims of the offences are witnesses and how many of the public servants who are witnesses”, it said. The Apex Court had perused the details of the pending trials and found that common people were all witnesses.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for ED, submitted that Balaji wielded “considerable influence”.