A fortnight after an Assistant Manager of the State Transport Department moved the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the police to register a case against an aide of former Transport Minister V. Senthil Balaji alleging a large-scale job racket, one more petitioner has approached the court with a similar plea, but this time against the former Minister.
The petitioner, V. Gopi, a resident of Neelankarai here, claimed that Mr. Senthil Balaji had got Rs. 2.31 crore from 107 job aspirants who received interview calls from the Transport Department assuring them of jobs. He claimed that after the candidates had appeared for the interview, Karthik, an associate of the then Minister, had approached them and promised to get them the job if they paid Rs. 3 lakh each for the post of conductor and driver, and Rs. 6 lakh each for the post of mechanical engineer.
As none of the aspirants received the appointment order as promised, they had filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Police, Chennai, against Mr. Senthil Balaji and his associates. Alleging that the police had failed to initiate action on the complaint, the petitioner prayed for a direction to police to register a case.
