The Madras High Court on Wednesday
agreed for an urgent hearing on a habeas corpus petition filed by
the wife of Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V.Senthilbalaji, who was
arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with
a money laundering case early this morning.
The petition was filed by DMK Rajya Sabha MP and the Minister’s
Counsel N.R.Elango on behalf of Mr Balaji’s wife.
In her petition, she accused the ED of having arrested her husband
without following due procedures.
Mr Elango made a mention before a Bench that due procedures were
not followed by the ED while arresting the Minister and that his family
members were not informed on what grounds he was arrested and
prayed for an urgent hearing.
The petition will be heard by the two member Bench comprising
Justices M.Sundar and R. Sakthivel, who accepted Mr Elango’s
plea that the arrest intimation was not furnished and the guidelines
issued by the Supreme Court with respect to the authority of the
investigating officers to resort to arrest had not been followed
in the Minister’s case.
The Judges said they would take up the case after it was numbered
by the Registry and asked the Senior Counsel to get back to the court
after getting the petition numbered.
However, a couple of hours later, one of the Judges R.Sakthivel
recused himself from the case, following which the Habeas corpus
plea will be listed before another Bench later today and taken up for
hearing.
