New Delhi: In a setback for former Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Madras High Court’s order directing a CBI probe into allegations $Rs 397 crore fraud in transformer procurement during his tenure as state power minister between 2021 and 2023.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta refused to accept the petition challenging the Supreme Court’s directions for a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities.
Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, representing a Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation official, said there was no specific prayer before the Supreme Court seeking a probe into the CBI and asserted that the actions were politically motivated.
“There was no prayer for a CBI probe before the Supreme Court. It is a politically motivated case,” Dave said.
Justice Nath said the court was empowered to direct such an investigation if the circumstances required it.
The council noted: “We don’t need to pray. It depends on how the court feels.”
The court refused to entertain the special leave petition against the order of the Supreme Court, ordered the appeal inadmissible and said that the investigation into the matter should continue independently without being influenced by any observations made by the Supreme Court.
On April 29, the Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities surrounding the Tamil Nadu government’s procurement of 45,000 distribution transformers.
Following the Supreme Court order, Balaji maintained that all procedures were duly followed in the tender process and that no irregularities were committed in the procurement of transformers.
The DMK leader also said that procurement procedures have been in place since 1987 and that “the same procedures have been followed even now”.
The Supreme Court order was based on allegations that the state treasury suffered a loss of $200 million $397 crore between 2021 and 2023.
The court passed the order on a petition filed by NGO Arappor Iyakkam seeking a probe by a special investigation team, while AIADMK’s legal wing functionaries E Saravanan and Rajkumar sought a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities.
The petitioners alleged that there were irregularities amounting to $Rs 397 crore was procured to purchase 45,000 transformers during Balaji’s tenure as Power Minister in the then DMK government.
The Supreme Court ordered that all relevant complaints be referred to the Central Bank of Iraq for a detailed investigation.
The Supreme Court ordered the CBI to conduct a fresh investigation into the matter and ordered the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Directorate to hand over all documents related to the case to the central agency within two weeks.
It also directed the CBI, upon receipt of the documents, to conduct and conclude the investigation expeditiously and take appropriate action in accordance with the law.
The Supreme Court also ordered TANGEDCO, DVAC and the Tamil Nadu government to extend their full cooperation to the CBI during the investigation.
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