New Delhi: The Madras high court has upheld the arrest and judicial custody of Tamil Nadu minister V. Senthil Balaji in the alleged cash-for-jobs scam.Justice C.V. Karthikeyan ruled against Balaji’s plea which sought relief from arrest. He is currently under post-operative care at a private hospital in Chennai, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for allegedly receiving and possessing the proceeds of crime received in the scam“The fact that respondents (ED) can take custody for further investigation cannot be denied. The respondent, in this case, had a right to get custody. I would align my opinion with the reason given by Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy in this aspect,” Justice Karthikeyan ruled, according to Livelaw.in.He is the third judge assigned to hear the habeas corpus petition (HCP) filed by Balaji’s wife, Megala, who prayed for declaring the arrest illegal and setting him at liberty, following a split verdict by a two-judge division bench on the matter.A division bench of Justice Nisha Banu and Justice Chakravarthy of the high court had issued differing rulings. Justice Banu held the arrest illegal and ordered the immediate release of the minister while noting that Enforcement Directorate lacked the power to take custody for interrogation. On the other hand, Justice Chakravarthy ruled that there was no illegality in the arrest of Balaji, noting that ED is well within its rights to take Balaji under custody for interrogation. He dismissed the habeas corpus petition.Due to the split verdict, the matter was assigned to Karthikeyan, the third judge in the case. Against this backdrop, he ruled, “If investigation requires custody then custody is to be given as a matter of right … But no accused has a right to frustrate inquiry. Even prior to his ill health, the accused refused to accept grounds of arrest and then claimed he was not provided grounds of arrest. This cannot be considered by this Court. It must be declared a falsity … When arrest is possible, then seeking custody is also permissible.”Justice Karthikeyan directed the court registry to forward the matter to the Chief Justice of the high court for a final order to be passed considering his opinion on the matter.In passing his verdict, Justice Karthikeyan considered Supreme Court’s ruling in Y Balaji v. Karthik Desai, wherein the top court had refused to discharge Balaji in the cash-for-jobs scam in May this year.“The Supreme Court’s observations are very telling. They go to the root of the matter to show why the June 13 search was conducted by ED. This Supreme Court judgment was not pointed out before the division bench by either side. I will be failing in my duty if I didn’t examine this judgment as that is what led to the ED proceedings,” Justice Karthikeyan said, according to Bar and Bench.Senthil Balaji, a minister in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government of chief minister M.K. Stalin, had an angiogram hours after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in early June in connection with money laundering cases.Justice Karthikeyan took into consideration Balaji’s plea that his arrest by ED and detention had affected his well-being. Balaji also said, in his petition, that he was not intimated of the grounds on which he was being arrested, thereby violating his constitutional rights.As for the ED, it said Balaji did not cooperate with the probe agency and “threw tantrums, threatened officials, and also refused to sign the memo of grounds of arrest”.“The respondents were at his (Balaji’s) doors since June 13. He should have known why. He can’t claim innocence … If the reasons to grant remand outweigh the objections to remand, then certainly such remand will have to be granted,” Justice Karthikeyan ruled.Balaji is still continuing as a minister in Tamil Nadu Cabinet, however without any portfolio. He is currently under post-operative care at a private hospital in Chennai.The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu has been critical of the BJP with regard to Senthil’s case, accusing it of resorting to “politics of intimidation”.