Chennai: Former minister and DMK MLA V Senthilbalaji moved Madras high court seeking anticipatory bail, apprehending arrest in connection with the alleged ₹35 crore horse-trading attempt to destabilise the TVK govt. The plea is likely to be taken up for hearing on Thursday.Earlier, the Chennai principal sessions court reserved its order on the application moved by Triplicane police seeking custody of three arrested accused in connection with the alleged horse-trading attempt.Concluding the final hearing, principal sessions judge S Karthikeyan reserved his orders on the plea seeking five days’ custody of Naresh, Ramesh and Karthik, accused in the case. According to police, custody was necessary to uncover the criminal conspiracy, identify other persons involved in the offence, and to trace illegal financial transactions.Representing the accused, senior advocate N R Elango contended that the police have so far arrested eight persons without first verifying the authenticity of the complaint. He argued that the allegation linking Senthilbalaji and his brother in the case itself demonstrated that the FIR was registered with mala fide intent and for political reasons.He further pointed out that the MLA who had made the allegations remained silent for more than two days before formally registering a complaint and therefore there was no need to for police custody.Representing the prosecution, advocate Arun Anbumani argued that the complainant was a first-time MLA and, being new to legislative politics, was naturally apprehensive when approached by a person allegedly attempting to topple the TVK govt.Police have so far also seized ₹1 lakh from the residence of one accused and ₹13 lakh from another. Since the alleged horse-trading involved ₹35 crore, it was necessary to investigate the source of the funds, for which police custody of the accused was essential, he said.
