Madras High Court rejects Senthilbalaji’s plea to stop police from ‘harassing’ him and his brother

Senthilbalaji alleged that the ruling dispensation had harbored enmity against him and his brother since the death of 41 people in a stampede that took place during Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s election campaign in Karur. | Photo credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM

The Madras High Court on Wednesday (July 22, 2026) dismissed two petitions filed by former DMK minister V Senthilbalaji and his brother RV Ashok Kumar to restrain the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), the Greater Chennai Police and the Karur Police from “harassing” them “in a criminal case or in any investigation.”

Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan said that no such direction could be issued as the petitioners had already received anticipatory bail in pending cases and it would be premature to issue such a direction anticipating registration of criminal cases against them in future. These pleas were rejected after stiff opposition from Public Prosecutor (SPP) R. John Sathyan.

The SPP told the court that although the petitioners had obtained anticipatory bail in some of the pending cases, they were yet to surrender before a judge of competent jurisdiction for the purpose of fulfilling bail and granting bail. He submitted that the petitioners could not in any event obtain a blanket injunction against their arrest by seeking to direct the police not to harass them.

In his petition, Mr. Senthilbalaji said that even after the Supreme Court granted anticipatory bail to him and his brother in a case related to an alleged bribe of ₹35 million offered to Uthangarai TVK MLA N. Elaiyaraja to act against his party’s interests, “the search and attempts to keep the petitioner and his family under constant pressure have not stopped.”

The plea further read: “Appellant reliably understands that there is an instruction from the political top that one way or another the appellant and his brother must be implicated in some other case and brought back to ‘settlement’. The petitioner contends that the continued search action after the grant of anticipatory bail serves no bona fide investigation but is intended to create an atmosphere for arrest in one case or another and to politically humiliate the petitioner.”

He also alleged that the ruling dispensation had harbored enmity against him and his brother since the death of 41 people in a stampede that took place during Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s election campaign in Karur on 27 September 2026.

Published – 23 Jul 2026 0:07 IST