New Delhi: The Supreme Court refused to interfere with the Madras high court’s interim order allowing medical treatment of arrested Tamil Nadu minister Senthil Balaji in a private hospital and turned down a plea of ED. Noting that the matter is still pending in the high court, which was scheduled to take up the case on June 22, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Justice M M Sundresh left it for the HC to decide the case on merit.
As solicitor general Tushar Mehta tried to impress upon the court to intervene as it would set a wrong precedent where an accused can frustrate custodial interrogation by getting admitted in hospital after being remanded to police custody, the bench said that the HC was yet to take a call on the issue and there was no reason to believe that the HC would not decide the case as per law.
Balaji undergoes bypass surgery
Meanwhile, Balaji underwent a beating heart coronary artery bypass surgery a week after the ED on June 14 arrested him over money laundering charges after 18-hour questioning. In a bulletin, Chennai’s Kauvery Hospital said Balaji is stable and being monitored in the post-operative cardiothoracic intensive care unit. “Four bypass grafts were placed and coronary revascularization was established.”
A Chennai court granted ED Balaji’s custody starting June 16 and allowed it to interrogate him only within hospital premises, prompting the federal agency to move Supreme Court. ED accused Balaji of feigning illness immediately after his arrest and opposed his shifting to the private hospital.