Congress leaders Mallikarjune Kharge and Kapil Sibal condemned the arrest of Senthil Balaji, the Tamil Nadu Minister of Electricity, Prohibition and Excise on Wednesday morning.

Enforcement Directorate officials raided V. Senthil Balaji’s house and other places related to him in Chennai and Coimbatore In the early hours of 14 June 2023. They interrogated him in relation to allegations made while he served as the transport minister in the AIADMK-led government from 2011 to 2015. Later, they arrested him for allegedly money laundering and took him for questioning. Subsequently, he was sent to judicial custody till 28 June.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge spoke about ED action against V Senthil Balaji and this act will not scare the opposition parties. “I condemn the harassment of the TN minister Senthil Balaji by ED. What was the need to arrest him in the night? Opposition parties will not be scared by all this,” ANI quoted Kharge as saying.

Talking to ANI, Kapil Sibal said, “It’s absolutely shocking. When they’ve their own govt in the state & Centre, then it becomes ‘double-engine’ govt. But when another party is ruling in the state&BJP in Centre, it becomes a ‘double barrel’ govt. They use ED&CBI.”

Tamil Nadu Minister Ma Subramanian told, “Senthil Balaji’s arrest is a murder of democracy. This has been done to corner DMK, before Parliament Elections. No procedures were followed in the arrest…BJP is trying to create a fake narrative that DMK is a corrupt party. They are trying to do this, with the help of institutions like ED. In Patna, there is a united opposition party meeting. BJP is doing this out of nervousness.”

Annamalai lost the last Assembly election, in Aravakurichi. Tamil Nadu’s people won’t ever accept BJP in the State. But Annamalai thought Senthil Balaji was the reason for his loss. He is now taking revenge on him. He was said to be the reason for DMK’s massive win in western Tamil Nadu. Even in the local body election, he had a significant role. Fearing that they (BJP) would get less votes than NOTA if Senthil Balaji works in Parliament election, they are doing these searches.” added Tamil Nadu Minister Ma Subramanian.