TN govt delaying trial by implicating over 2,000 accused in cases involving ex-minister: SC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court expressed displeasure on Tuesday over the Tamil Nadu government "attempting to delay" the trial in cases involving former state minister V Senthil Balaji by implicating more than 2,000 people as accused in an alleged cash-for-jobs scam. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi described the attempt as a "complete fraud on the judicial system", called for listing all matters pending before the top court involving Balaji and posted the case for hearing on Wednesday. Justice Kant said, "We would like to know that besides the minister, who were the alleged brokers or middlemen? Who were the officers who acted on the recommendations of the minister? Who were the members of the selection committee? Who were the authorities who gave the appointment?" Observing that the state's attempt appears to be aimed at ensuring that the trial proceedings are not completed during Balaji's lifetime, the bench said poor people, who were coerced by the former minister or his henchmen to pay for jobs, are being implicated as bribe givers and accused in cases related to the "scam". "You (state) are more keen to prosecute them so that in the entire lifetime of the minister, the trial proceedings never come to an end. This is your modus operandi. This is a complete fraud being committed on the system," the bench told the counsel appearing in the court on behalf of the state.

Representing the Tamil Nadu government in the court, senior advocates Abhishek Singhvi and Amit Anand Tiwari claimed that the petitioner, Y Balaji, is indulging in forum shopping by approaching the Supreme Court directly on behalf of the victims of the alleged scam, instead of the high court. Appearing in the matter for the petitioner, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan accused the state of colluding with the former minister and attempting to delay the trial. The top court was hearing a petition filed by Y Balaji, challenging the March 28 Madras High Court order dismissing pleas against the clubbing of multiple chargesheets in cases related to the alleged scam. According to a report filed in the apex court by a trial judge in April, there are around 2,300 accused in cases involving the former Tamil Nadu minister in the cash-for-jobs "scam". V Senthil Balaji resigned from the M K Stalin-led state cabinet on April 27, after being pulled up by the top court. The apex court asked Balaji on April 23 to make a choice "between post and freedom" as it warned him that his bail will be cancelled if he does not step down as a minister.

It took exception to the fact that Balaji was reinstated as a minister in the southern state, days after he obtained bail in a money-laundering case related to the cash-for-jobs "scam". On September 26, 2024, the top court granted bail to Balaji, who had spent more than 15 months in jail, and observed that there was no possibility that the trial would be concluded in the near future. Balaji (48) was sworn in as a minister by Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on September 29 last year and assigned the same key portfolios of electricity, non-conventional energy development, prohibition and excise that he held previously in the Stalin cabinet. Balaji, who represents the Karur constituency in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, was arrested in the case on June 14, 2023 over the "scam" that allegedly took place when he was the transport minister in the state during the previous AIADMK regime between 2011 and 2015. On February 13 last year, the governor accepted Balaji's resignation from the council of ministers. The top court's reprieve on September 26, 2024 ended Balaji's 471-day incarceration. The ED filed a money-laundering case in July 2021 to probe the allegations, after three FIRs were registered by the Tamil Nadu Police in 2018 and on the basis of complaints from those aggrieved in the alleged scam. The ED chargesheet had claimed that the entire recruitment process in the state transport department during Balaji's tenure as the minister was turned into a "corrupt chiefdom".