NEW DELHI: Trouble is brewing for Tamil Nadu Energy Minister V Senthil Balaji as the Supreme Court on Friday considered a petition challenging a Madras High Court ruling quashing a case under the Energy Act prevention of bribery against him based on a compromise reached by him and two of his co-accused with a person who was allegedly duped in a labor racket.
A bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli received a petition from a person who had challenged the quashing of a corruption case alleging that he had been deprived of a government job despite high marks because Balaji, his brother, and the personal assistant minister had cobbled together the merit list to accommodate applicants who allegedly paid bribes. The crime was allegedly committed when Balaji was transport minister in the former DMK government in 2014. He allegedly promised jobs in Metro Transport Corporation to aspirants in return for payment of hundreds of thousands of rupees in collusion with his brother Ashok Kumar, assistant Shanmugan staff and MTC employee Raj Kumar.
The bench led by CJI Raman issued notices to Shanmugan and Ashok Kumar asking them to show why the case would not be retried against them.