Chennai, July 12 : A Principal Sessions Court on Wednesdayextended till July 26, the judicial remand of Tamil Nadu MinisterV.Senthilbalaji, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate(ED) in a money laundering case and now convalescing in a privatehospital after a bypass surgery.Prinicipal Sessions Judge Ms S.Alli extended the judicial remandafter Mr Senthilbalaji was produced from the Kauvery Hospital,where he had underwent bypass surgery, via video conferencing.Today, after the expiry of his judicial remand, the Judge extendedit by another 15 days till July 26 and the Minister was expectedto be in hospital since he had underwent a bypass surgery.The Minister had on June 21 underwent a bypass surgery at theKauvery hospital in the city, where he was shifted on the ordersof the Madras High Court on June 15.The Minister was arrested on the early morning of June 14 by theED after 17 hour long raids at his Official residence and at hisChamber in the State Secretariat and remanded in judicial custodytill June 28 and extended it till today.While being taken in a car to the ED office for interrogation, theMinister had complained of chest pain and was rushed to OmandurarGovernment Multi super-speciality Hospital where an angiogram hadrevealed three blocks in his blood vessels and doctors advised abypass surgery at the earliest.On a habeas corpus petition filed by his wife seeking a directionto shift him to Kauvery hospital, where he been regularly takingtreatment prior to his arrest, the court allowed it after which hewas shifted to the hospital of his choice.In the meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Governor R.N.Ravi, while allocatingthe portfolios held by Mr Senthilbalaji to Ministers ThangamThennarasu and S.Muthusamy on the recommendations of ChiefMinister M.K.Stalin, however, disagreed with his continuance inthe State Cabinet as he was facing criminal proceedings.The Opposition parties in the State also demanded that he shouldbe removed from the Cabinet.However, the Tamil Nadu government issued an order stating thathe would continue to remain in the State Cabinet as a Ministerwithout portfolio.Later, the Governor dismissed him from the Cabinet under powersvested with him and subsequently kept it in abeyance on the adviseof Union Home Minister Amit Shah who suggested to him to seek theopinion of the Attorney General.The Minister’s dismissal without his advice was disregarded by theChief Minister who contended that the Governor has no powers totake such a decision and that it was his (CM’s) prerogative to decideon who should remain in his Cabinet or not.Meanwhile, the Madras High Court delivered a split verdict in theHabeas Corpus petition filed by the Minister’s wife.On July 4, a Bench of Justice J Nisha Banu and Justice BharathaChakravarthy gave a split verdict. While Justice Banu observedthat the petition was maintainable and that ED was not entitledto seek police custody, Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy ruled thatMr Balaji’s arrest did not amount to illegal act by the ED.Following this, it was referred to Justice CV Karthikeyan, the thirdjudge appointed by the Chief Minister.Mr Justice Karthikeyan after hearing arguments from the petitionerand the ED yesterday and today, adjourned the case to July 14.(UNI)