BJP MLA from Coimbatore South and the national president of the party’s Mahila Morcha (women’s wing) Vanathi Srinivasan said that the BJP as a political party had no role as far as the arrest of Tamil Nadu Minister Senthilbalaji by the Enforcement Directorate was concerned.
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Speaking to The Hindu, Ms. Srinivasan said the investigation of the alleged cash-for-jobs scam was driven by the Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court allowed the police and ED probe into the case and these agencies are working independently. If at all the political parties like DMK and its supporters are aggrieved, they have recourse to the law,” she said, adding that “the BJP as a political party has ‘0%’ role in driving the investigation.”
She said that from time to time, the BJP had been at the forefront to “expose” the alleged corruption of the DMK Government in Tamil Nadu, “but to extrapolate that the party had anything to do with the ED investigation is wrong.”
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Ms. Srinivasan added that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, while in Opposition, had, in a public meeting in Karur declared that Mr. Balaji as corrupt. “After saying all that in a public meeting, Mr. Stalin is now claiming political vendetta in his arrest, only because, Senthilbalaji later joined the DMK and is a powerful Minister in the party’s government in Tamil Nadu,” she said.
BJP spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam also reiterated that the arrest was based on evidence and following the Supreme Court’s critical observation about the case involving the former AIADMK leader, now in the ruling DMK.
Mr. Senthilbalaji was arrested after nearly 18 hours of questioning by officials of the ED in Chennai and raids on his home, and his office in the State Secretariat.