High Court quashes FIR against Senthil Balaji

September 20, 2016 12:00 am | Updated November 01, 2016 07:45 pm IST - MADURAI:

The Madras High Court Bench here on Monday quashed a First Information Report (FIR) registered by Sivaganga District Crime Branch (DCB) police against former State Transport Minister V. Senthil Balaji and Rengarajan, Managing Director, Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, Kumbakonam, on charges of obtaining Rs.61 lakh from 38 people by promising them jobs in the transport corporation in 2014.

Justice S. Vimala quashed the FIR on the ground that there were absolutely no material to even doubt the involvement of the former Minister and the TNSTC MD as none of the witnesses had spoken about their role in the offence. On the contrary, the judge directed the DCB to register a FIR against the complainant, U. Subbaiah, since it was he who had collected the money in his bank account using the name of Mr. Balaji.

“Who is the accused? Who is the victim? These are the perplexing questions raised in these petitions since allegations and counter allegations are made by both against each other,” the judge began her judgment before holding that if the former Minister as well as the officials were really involved in the alleged offence, then the possibility of them having issued fake appointment orders to those who had paid money was remote.

“From the statements of witnesses recorded by the police, it is evident that nobody has spoken about Rengarajan or Senthil Balaji. When materials disclose that money has been credited into the account of Subbaiah and there is no material to show to whom it was handed over to and when the witnesses also did not speak anything about involvement of Rengarajan or Senthil Balaji, the inevitable consequence is that the proceedings against them must be quashed,” the judge said.

The judge also recorded the submission that Subbaiah was absconding since the Pudukottai Police registered a case against him under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code on August 1 after nine people approached the MD of TNSTC, Pudukottai Region, and claimed that they have been appointed to various posts on payment of money to him.

Though in a petition seeking registration of FIR against the former Minister, Subbaiah had claimed to be working as a technical assistant in TNSTC, it was brought to the notice of the judge that he was only a contract labourer and not a permanent employee.

Even as his petition was pending in the court since August 6, the Sivaganga DCB jumped the guns and registered a FIR against Senthil Balaji and others on August 26 and that had been quashed now.

Directs police to book the complainant instead

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