Arrested Minister V. Senthilbalaji’s wife Megala has filed an additional affidavit in the Madras High Court accusing Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Tamil Nadu unit president K. Annamalai of having nursed a grudge against her husband because of perceiving the latter to be a direct threat in politics.
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In the affidavit filed in support of a habeas corpus petition questioning her husband’s arrest by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on June 14, the petitioner said, Mr. Annamalai had been speaking, since August 2022, about the possibility of such an action by the central law enforcement agencies.
She also contended an order passed by the Principal Sessions Judge on June 14 remanding her husband in judicial custody till June 28 was illegal because the judge had reportedly not considered properly a petition filed by him to reject the remand request for not having informed the grounds of arrest.
The petitioner claimed the petition to reject the remand plea was made when the sessions judge visited the Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital at Omandurar Government Estate, Chennai to remand the hospitalised Minister. Then, the judge wanted his lawyer to argue the matter in open court on the same day.
However, after returning to the court, she held that the question of rejecting the remand would not arise since she had already remanded the Minister in judicial custody. “In view of this illegality, the subsequent detention of the detenu (in judicial custody) is illegal,” Ms. Megala claimed and pleaded to set her husband at liberty.