The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted former AIADMK Minister K.T. Rajenthra Bhalaji bail for four weeks in connection with a job scam case.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana even wondered whether a judicial inquiry should be ordered into the circumstances that led to Mr. Bhalaji’s arrest when his case for bail was already pending in the top court, his incarceration in a Tiruchi jail 300 km away from the jurisdictional court and the raids on the houses of his lawyers.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, for the Tamil Nadu government, denied the accusations of “personal vendetta” lodged against the State by the former Minister.
Mr. Rohatgi said the police complaint against Mr. Bhalaji was registered in August 2021.
“For the next five months, the State did not do anything. If this was a case of personal vendetta, we would have arrested him the next day of the complaint in August,” Mr. Rohatgi submitted.
The senior advocate said there were multiple complaints that the Minister’s assistants received money at his house.
“The Minister had himself been absconding. How can this be a case of personal vendetta? People have lost their livelihoods and sold their jewellery to pay money to the Minister,” Mr. Rohatgi submitted.
He submitted that Mr. Bhalaji’s arrest on January 5, just before his case was listed in the Supreme Court, was a mere coincidence.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, for Mr. Bhalaji, argued that the case was a product of political vendetta.
“We are increasingly becoming a police state and it looks like any citizens can be arrested. The lower Magistracy is not standing up against it. We all know how police can pressurise witnesses,” Mr. Dave argued. He said they had not been given the remand order.
“I [Mr. Bhalaji] am deliberately being kept in a jail 300 km away,” Mr. Dave contended.
The court allowed the former Minister bail provided he did not leave the jurisdiction of the police station in which the crime was registered. The court ordered Mr. Bhalaji to surrender his passport and cooperate with the investigation.
The court listed the case after three weeks.
The former AIADMK Minister was arrested over a job scam case in Karnataka and brought to Tamil Nadu.
Two separate FIRs were registered previously by the Virudhunagar police following complaints.
The alleged victims had been promised various jobs in State government departments, including in the state-run dairy cooperative ‘Aavin’.
Mr. Bhalaji had held the Milk and Dairy Development portfolio in the previous AIADMK government.
