Tamil Nadu Opposition party ADMK is facing back-to-back whammies amidst the leadership crisis within the party. While senior party leaders and former ministers have been brought under the scanner of Tamil Nadu's premier anti-corruption agency following the raids and complaints of amassing more wealth than their source of income, another senior leader of the party is now been absconded to evade the arrest from the Tamil Nadu police in connection to the corruption charges.

KT Rajenthra Balaji, who is one of the controversial political figures in the state, is facing trouble after the police had formed special teams to arrest him. Rajenthra Balaji had served as the Minister of Daily Development in the previous ADMK regime led by Edappadi Palaniswami and he is one of the senior leaders who had lost the 2021 assembly polls. Days after Tamil Nadu's Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) had conducted raids at the properties that belong to former ADMK Minister Thangamani, the Tamil Nadu police have now launched a manhunt to apprehend Rajenthra Balaji. 

The police department of Rajenthra Balaji's home district of Virudhunagar had formed special teams to arrest him after his anticipatory bail was dismissed by the Madras High Court on Friday- December 17. According to reports, a scam case was filed against Rajenthra Balaji under the grounds of cheating and swindling crores of money with the assurance of awarding government jobs, while he was serving as the minister. However, he had failed to keep his assurance and complaints were lodged against him recently and one of the complainants include a person who was close to him. 

The former minister had last month moved his anticipatory bail plea to the Madras High Court after the police had filed two cheating cases against him under serious charges. The Virudhunagar District Crime Branch have slapped a case under section 420-cheating, 406- punishment for criminal breach of trust, and 506- criminal intimidation of the IPC. 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, the state-run Dairy board that comes under the Department of Dairy, headed by Rajenthra Balaji in the previous government. 

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.

As back-to-back cheating cases to the tune of Rs 3 crore has been lodged against the former minister, Rajenthra Balaji has approached the Madras High Court with an anticipatory bail petition to evade arrest. In his petition, he has claimed that the complaints were filed to damage his reputation. His plea came for hearing on Friday -December 17 before the single-judge bench of Justice Nirmal Kumar. During the hearing, the police have said that there has been a strong piece of evidence against Rajenthra Balaji that he had received money with the assurances of providing jobs in Aavin. 

The police had appealed to the court to dismiss his bail plea as he must be taken under custody for further investigations. After the hearing, the judge had dismissed Rajenthra Balaji's bail petition, clearing the way for the police to arrest him. Shocked to know that his petition was dismissed, Rajenthra Balaji, who was in the party's protest against the DMK government, left the place and our sources say that he had absconded to escape the arrest.

Virudhunagar Superintendent of Police Manoharan has issued an arrest warrant and has formed four special teams to arrest the former minister. The special teams have been rushed to Madurai, Trichy, Tenkasi, and Chennai to strengthen the search against the former minister. The police department has also decided to surveil the state borders and airports to ensure that Rajenthra Balaji won't flee the state.