Cash-for-jobs Scam: Supreme Court Reserves Verdict on Bail Plea of V Senthil Balaji in Money Laundering Case

On August 12, 2024 (Monday), the Supreme Court (SC) of India reserved its verdict on the bail plea of MLA and former Tamil Nadu Minister V Senthil Balaji, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case in connection with cash for jobs scam. The bench constituting Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih was hearing a plea filed by V Senthil Balaji against the decision of the Madras High Court denying him bail. Earlier last week, the SC bench asked whether the trial under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) could proceed without the trial of the predicate offence. While hearing the matter yesterday (August 12), Justice Oka asked, “What will happen to PMLA trial when predicate offence is not proved? Can you proceed for trial in PMLA case when trial of predicate offence has not started? How will you proceed with the trial? Either you make a statement that you are not relying on the other trial of the predicate offences. How can you proceed with this? Tell us the outer limit when these trials will be conducted.”

Justice Oka noted that the trial in the predicate offence case being probed by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) is yet to begin. He asked, “Here there are three predicate offences. Nothing has started. Tell us how many witnesses are there in each predicate offence is there? Can you even tell about when the trial can commence? We can't imagine if the trial will commence or not. Total accused are over 500 combined in all three predicate cases. How many days will it be taken to even record their statements?” He added, “He has been in custody for one year. If we can't imagine trial commencing in 3 months 4 months...Anybody may be responsible. The fact of the matter is that the trial is not going to proceed. What do we do about it?” After hearing the matter from both sides, the SC bench reserved its verdict. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi and Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra appeared for V Senthil Balaji and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Advocate Zoheb Hossain represented the ED.