The Tamil Nadu police have intensified a manhunt to apprehend former ADMK Minister Rajenthra Balaji, who has been on run, in connection to a cheating case that was filed under the grounds of swindling crores of money by promising government jobs. Rajenthra Balaji had served as the Tamil Nadu Minister for Daily Development in the previous ADMK regime, led by Edappadi Palaniswami.

The case was filed last month and the anticipatory bail petition moved by the former minister was dismissed by the Madras High Court last week, clearing the way for the police to arrest him. Following the rejection of bail, our sources had said that Rajenthra Bajali has been at large to evade the arrest and the police department of Rajenthra Bajali's home district of Virudhunagar had formed special teams to arrest him. 

Virudhunagar Superintendent of Police Manoharan has issued an arrest warrant and has initially formed four special teams to arrest the former minister. Later, two more teams were added to the mission and according to the latest reports, the Tamil Nadu police have rushed to Bangalore after receiving information that he has been staying in Karnataka's capital. The team has rushed to one of Tamil Nadu's neighbouring states on Monday as the manhunt against him has been tightened. 

The High Court had rejected Rajenthra Balaji's bail petition on December 17 - last Friday and according to IANS, the former minister was addressing a public function against the DMK government in Virudhunagar on Friday and he had suddenly fled the spot after the bail was denied. Amid ADMK said that he was not hiding, Rajenthra Balaji had approached the Supreme Court later on Friday to challenge Madras High Court's order of rejecting his bail plea.

Rajenthra Balaji was accused of cheating several people and swindling their money. It has been reported that he had promised 23 people to provide government jobs in the state-owned Aavin, a dairy board that comes under the department of Dairy development for which he was the minister in the previous government. He had received crores of money from the people and swindled the money. The complaint was lodged against the former minister by two people, including the one who was an associate for him. 

The complainants were Nallathambi and Raveendran. Nallathambi was close to the former minister and later had turned against him. Nallathambi was a former functionary of ADMK and in his complaint, he has alleged that he had collected money to the tune of Rs 1.6 crore from several people and given it to the people close to Rajenthra Balaji to get government jobs. Among the people who gave money to Nallathambi was Raveendran, one of the complainants, from Sattur in Virudhunagar and he alleged that he had handed over Rs 30 lakh to Nallathambi with the promise of getting a job as a manager in Aavin. 

Nallathambi had served as the Union Secretary of the ADMK between November 2020 and February 2021. Raveendran said that he was promised a job as a manager in Aavin by another ADMK functionary Mariappan, who introduced him to Nallathambi. Raveendran further said that he had given Rs 30 lakh by taking loans. However, as the DMK came to power, Raveendran alleged that he couldn't able to meet any of them. He had then filed a complaint to the Virudhunagar Crime Branch and as per the investigations, the police had filed a case against former minister Rajenthra Balaji, Nallathambi, and Mariappan under the grounds of cheating. 

After knowing that a case has been filed against him, Nallathambi had turned against Rajenthra Balaji and he had filed a fresh complaint against the former minister by alleging that Rajenthra Balaji had cheated him to the tune of Rs 1.6 crore with fake job assurances. Based on his complaint, the police had filed a second cheating case against the former minister and three others. Apart from Rs 1.6 crore, Nallathambi has also alleged that Rajenthra Balaji had failed to repay him Rs 1.40 crore, which he spent for various programmes of the ADMK under his instructions. Nallathambi went on to allege that he has been receiving death threats from Rajenthra Balaji and his supporters. 

The Virudhunagar district Crime Branch has slapped a case against the former minister under section 420-cheating, 406- punishment for criminal breach of trust, and 506- criminal intimidation of the IPC. The Virudhunagar police department has former special teams that rushed to Madurai, Trichy, Tenkasi, and Chennai to strengthen the search against the former minister. With the inputs that he has been hiding in Bangalore, a team has now rushed to Karnataka to apprehend him.