1. Senthilbalaji arrest | Minister undergoes surgery; AIADMK holds state-wide protests
Tamil Nadu Minister V. Senthilbalaji, underwent a beating heart coronary artery bypass surgery at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai. During the surgery, four bypass grafts were placed after removing the blocks in blood vessels, and blood flow was restored in these vessels.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court, refused immediate relief to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and left it entirely to the Madras High Court to decide, on June 22, whether Mr. Senthilbalaji’s transfer to a private hospital has thwarted the Central agency’s “right to remand” and interrogate him on money laundering charges connected to a cash-for-jobs scam. The case raises legal questions as to whether an accused can delay police remand on medical grounds and if the time he spends in private care can be counted as “effective custody”.
Demanding the ruling DMK government to drop Senthilbalaji from the Tamil Nadu Cabinet, citing his arrest, AIAIDMK conducted agitations across Tamil Nadu.
2. Vengaivayal incident | One-man commission holds meeting for second time
Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, the retired judge appointed as the one-man commission by the Madras High Court to probe the case of mixing of human faeces in an overhead tank that supplied drinking water to Scheduled Caste residents of Vengaivayal in Pudukkottai district in December, held a second meeting with the district officials to ascertain the progress of investigation in the case.
Mr. Sathyanarayanan later told journalists that the investigation being carried out by the CB-CID was satisfactory and he did not see the need for CBI intervention at this stage. On the next course of action, he said: “For further inquiry, I have asked for a report from the district administration on the pump operator’s duties and responsibility to check if there are any lapses. We are also awaiting the report from the CB-CID.”
3. Have plan to upgrade Semmozhi Poonga on par with Dubai Miracle Garden: T.N. government tells Madras HC
The Tamil Nadu government told the Madras High Court that it intends to upgrade the sprawling Semmozhi Poonga on Cathedral Road in Chennai into a world-class park, by annexing to it the recently-retrieved land from Agri-Horticultural Society.
The submission on the government’s plan to upgrade the park on par with the Royal Botanic Gardens in London or the Dubai Miracle Garden, was made before Justice S.M. Subramaniam during the hearing of a new writ petition filed by the private society claiming title over the land parcel measuring four cawnies (each cawny measuring 1.322 acres approximately), 18 grounds and 1,683 square feet.
