The Supreme Court, while hearing the bail plea of former Tamil Nadu minister V Senthil Balaji on Wednesday, asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to show the pen drive recovered from Balaji’s residence, which allegedly contains evidence against him. The central probe agency had arrested Senthil Balaji in the cash-for-jobs case in June 2023. In its prosecution complaint, equivalent to a charge sheet, the probe agency has relied on a file named ‘CSAC.xlsx’, which contains According to him, there is evidence of Balaji receiving Rs 67 crore.
Supreme Court questioned ED on the evidence against Senthil Balaji. The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked questions from the Enforcement Directorate about the evidence on which the investigating agency is claiming that Senthil Balaji has committed the crime of money laundering in the Cash for Jobs case. A bench led by Justice Abhay Oka asked the agency’s lawyers to give a ‘simple answer’ to its ‘simple question’ as to where the agency recovered the soft file which it claims implicates Balaji and There is evidence of crime proceeds of Rs 67 crore in this.
Justice Oka said, ‘We want simple answers to simple questions.’ Justice Oka said there must be some evidence to show that the file relied upon by the ED was part of the pen drive and the said fact has been corroborated by the FSL report. Hearing the bail plea of Senthil Balaji, the court initially sought response from the ED on Balaji’s claims that the said file was not a part of the seized pen-drive.
The court said, ‘Our question is very simple. Where did you get that document from? This is an electronic file, which was found in which of the seized devices? The court said, you are relying on a soft file. SG Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, said that the petitioner’s counsel is trying to simplify the situation and the court will have to look at the background of the case.
‘SG said ‘it’s not a one line answer’ ED counsel Advocate Zohaib Hussain informed the court that the soft file was not part of the material seized by the ED but was seized in the commission of a crime by the local police. Was. Reiterating its question, the court again said that the file on which relief is being granted is a soft file which cannot be physically seized. Hussain told the court that the pen drive which contained several Excel sheets was found in Balaji’s premises. He said that the ED had applied to the court and had received a copy.
The court also said that the agency would have to show whether the pen drive was sent to FSL, and whether there was any report stating that the said file was part of the pen drive.