Chennai,April 9,2025

After absconding for more than two years, Ashok Kumar, the brother of minister V Senthilbalaji, appeared before the court in the alleged cash-for-job case.

Kumar, the second accused in the job racket case, and twelve other accused, including Senthilbalaji, appeared before the principal sessions court, Chennai.

Special public prosecutor for the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) Rajnish Pathiyal submitted that the accused will be served with a digital copy of supplementary chargesheets and related documents as it runs over 5,000 pages.

The counsel for the accused objected to the submission and sought to serve the documents, including supplementary chargesheets, in hard copy so as to ensure the veracity.

The judge refused the contention as the new criminal law allows the prosecution to serve case papers in digital format as well. After recording their appearance, the court ordered the accused persons to execute a bond of Rs 2 lakh each and posted the matter to April 25.

In January, the ED filed a supplementary chargesheet before the principal sessions court, naming Kumar and 12 others in the alleged job scam case. Upon perusing the chargesheet, the court issued summons.

In 2015, several complaints were received at the central crime branch (CCB) against Senthilbalaji and his brother Kumar, alleging they offered jobs for cash in the Transport Department.

The investigation agency filed a chargesheet after investigating the allegation that Senthilbalaji promised government jobs in the Transport Department in exchange of cash between 2014 and 2015, when he was the Transport minister in the AIADMK government.

Based on the chargesheet, the ED initiated a money laundering probe and arrested Senthilbalaji in June 2023. Kumar went absconding in May 2023.

Ashok Kumar, referred to as ‘Chinnavar’ (younger brother) in the DMK circles in Karur and supporters of Senthilbalaji, is the second accused in the ‘cash for job’ case registered by the Central Crime Branch (CCB), Chennai.

Senthilbalaji, the prime accused, is alleged to have offered jobs in the transport corporations in lieu of cash when he was the Transport Minister in collaboration with Ashok Kumar and personal assistants B. Shanmugam and M. Karthikeyyan.

I-T and the ED officials had carried out seven rounds of searches in Karur. Of them, three were by the ED. Except for the ancestral house at Rameswarapatti on the outskirts of Karur, where the Minister’s father Velusamy and mother Rukmani live, most of the properties of Senthilbalaji and Ashok Kumar remain locked. There is hardly any movement in the bungalow of Ashok Kumar at Ramakrishnapuram, where the I-T officials were reportedly manhandled by the DMK workers on May 26,2023

Ashok Kumar, 45, married to Nirmala of Manmangalam, was running a small textile unit at Ramakrishnapuram along with Senthilbalaji when the latter was an MLA between 2006 and 2011.

The unit ceased to exist after Senthilbalaji was made as Transport Minister in the Jayalalithaa government in 2011.

After that, Ashok Kumar began assisting his brother in mobilising crowds for the AIADMK’s public meetings and in electioneering.

Though he remained in the background until Jayalalithaa was in power, he is alleged to have worked in tandem with Senthilbalaji in taking decisions on filling various posts in the Transport Department between 2011 and 2015.

Ashok Kumar’s influence came out in open in political circles, the Karur district administration and in some departments after Senthilbalaji was appointed Minister for Electricity, Excise and Prohibition in the DMK government in 2021.

Critics claimed Ashok Kumar handled financial dealings, finalising contracts, postings and others. They charged he was a shadow power centre in Karur.

He reportedly patronised a group of supported referred in political circles as the ‘Karur Gang.’ This group was accused of collecting revenue from illegal bars attached with the Tasmac outlets.

Amid rumours that he was detained by the ED the agency clarified that he remains elusive. The ED also said Ashok Kumar, his wife and mother-in-law, were not extending cooperation to the agency.

It recently froze a 2.49 acre property belonging to his family in Karur on which a palatial bungalow was being constructed.