A special team comprising officials of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the Chennai city police is camping in Karnataka with the aim of tracing the whereabouts of former Transport Minister V. Senthil Balaji, an accused in a cheating case filed in 2015.
A team of police from Tamil Nadu recently visited a resort in Kodagu, where supporters of sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran had been staying. They were looking for Mr. Balaji, but couldn’t find him in the resort.
In order to trace his whereabouts, the CCB team is now camping in Bengaluru, sources said.
ADVERTISEMENT
‘Aspirants duped’
Mr. Balaji, during his tenure as the Transport Minister, is alleged to have collected Rs. 5 crore from candidates aspiring to secure jobs in the Transport department.
Accusing him of duping them, over 150 such aspirants filed criminal complaints against him, which are pending, the police said.
ADVERTISEMENT
V. Gopi, a resident of Neelankarai and one of the complainants, claimed that Mr. Balaji had collected ₹2.31 crore from 107 job aspirants, who received calls for interview from the Transport department.
After the candidates appeared for the interview, Karthik, an associate of the former Minister, is alleged to have approached them and promised job offers for them if they paid ₹3 lakh each for the post of conductor and driver, and ₹6 lakh each for the post of mechanical engineer.