15 months in jail, no end in sight for trial, SC grants TN ex-minister Senthil Balaji bail in PMLA case

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Key Points

Senthil Balaji in the Enforcement Directorates (EDs) case against the former Tamil Nadu electricity minister under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002...

While granting Senthil Balaji bail, the Supreme Court also observed that there is no possibility of his trials in either the money laundering (PMLA) case or the predicate offences case that the Tamil Nadu Police are probing concluding shortly..

With that said, he asserted that the established proceeds of crime are essential to conclude proceedings in any PMLA case which is impossible without the conclusion of the trials in the cases filed against Senthil Balaji by the Tamil Nadu Police...

The existence of proceeds of crime at the time of the trial of the offence under Section 3 of PMLA can be proved, only if the scheduled offence is established in the prosecution of the scheduled offence, the judge further said.. Therefore, even if the trial of the case under the PMLA proceeds, it cannot be finally decided unless the trial of scheduled offence concludes..

However, Justice Oka rejected arguments made by Senthil Balajis counsels that the ED added all of his salaries as a Member of Legislative Assembly, Tamil Nadu, and agriculture income to claim that Rs 1.34 lakh cash deposits were part of his proceeds of crime. Balajs counsels included Dr. Ram Sankar, Mukul Rohatgi, Siddharth Luthra, and N.R. Elango...

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