As the legal standoff between Tamil Nadu Minister Senthil Balaji and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) rages on, all eyes are on the embattled minister, who following his arrest by the ED, is now confined to a hospital bed after undergoing a bypass surgery. Senthil Balaji, accused of indulging in a multi-crore job scam, is also being accused of money laundering by the ED. While high-voltage drama unfolds in courts and the hospital, the victims of the Transport Department's cash-for-job scandal have been silently fighting their own battle, striving to reclaim the positions that were unjustly snatched away from them as a result of corruption and misconduct.
The transport scam that took place in the previous AIADMK regime between 2011 and 2016 has left three kinds of victims. One, those who allegedly paid bribes to the then Transport Minister Senthil for jobs, two, the lower-level transport department staff who collected money from aspiring candidates, and three, the deserving candidates who appeared for the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) job interview, scored high marks, and were deliberately denied jobs.
TNM spoke to some of the victims of the cash-for-job scam, whose dreams of securing themselves a government job were shattered. 41-year-old Karthick (name changed to protect identity) recalled the day he came to know about the marks he had scored in the MTC job interview and how his marks were manipulated, depriving him of his rightful opportunity. “When the police officer investigating the case showed me the original records of the marks I scored, my heart sank and I broke down. I had secured more than 80 marks, and it was changed to 44. My interview round mark was 25, and it was manipulated and written as 3. My job was snatched away from me,” Karthick told TNM.
Being the sole breadwinner of the family, Karthick now works as a manager for a private automobile company. He says that the past nine years have been a struggle to take care of the family and fight a legal battle to reclaim the lost opportunity. "Now I am earning Rs 30,000. If I had been employed in the transport department, by now my salary would have been around Rs 1 lakh, and I would have gotten other benefits as a government employee too. I want to continue my fight, but I was forced to give up because I did not want any disturbance for my family," Karthick added.
Like Karthick, there were others who found out that they had been cheated by the very system that they trusted would shape their careers. 38-year-old Kumaravel (name changed) says that until 2019, he was unaware that he was a victim of a cash-for-job scam. “After attending the interview in 2014, I was waiting for some communication from the department. I did not receive any, and later in 2015, I casually inquired with the staff at depots regarding their appointment, and many told me that they were appointed in 2014. I was under the impression that appointments had been made and I had not been selected until I got a call from the Chennai Police Commissioner’s office in 2019,” he added.
Even though the cheating complaint against the then Transport Minister Senthil Balaji was lodged by one of the victims, who gave money in return for a government job in the transport department in 2015, the actual investigation into the crime began only in 2019, when the Madras High Court intervened and directed the Chennai Central Crime Branch to expeditiously investigate the matter. This is when the CCB reached out to the real victims of the cash-for-job scam and took a serious look at the case.
"If the police had not called us for an inquiry, we would not have known about how they snatched away our opportunity. If I had gotten the job, my life would have been different; I would have supported my parents in a better way and ensured a better future for my children," Kumaravel told TNM.
TNM also spoke to another victim, Murugan, who said that after they filed cases in the Madras High Court highlighting how they were robbed of their rightful opportunities, there was pressure from several quarters to withdraw the case. The counsel for one of the petitioners told TNM that one of his clients had received threats asking them to drop the case. "The kind of trauma and stress we underwent for the past nine years can’t be described in words. Particularly after filing the case, the problems intensified. I used to think that because we did not give money, we were denied the opportunity that we deserved. This is the price that we paid for being honest. Even if I want to do something like this, I am unable to do it," Murugan added.
The advocate who was helping the victims pursue their legal battle said that Murugan’s case was a classic example of how all recruitment norms were violated by the then Transport Minister Senthil Balaji and the transport department officials. "Murugan is a person with disabilities, and he had scored top marks. He also belongs to the SC community. He had fair chances of getting selected under three categories – one in the general quota due to his high marks, second in the Scheduled Caste category, and third in the reserved category for persons with disabilities. Murugan’s marks were manipulated, and he was not selected," the advocate told TNM.
Nine years later, the spotlight is back on the Transport scam, once again. This has given a flicker of hope to the victims, who feel that the present DMK government will take remedial measures by scrapping the illegal appointments made during Senthil Balaji’s tenure as Transport Minister in 2014–2015, and providing them with their jobs.
Counsel for the petitioner, N Subramaniyan, told TNM that the previous AIADMK government failed to cancel the illegal appointments and that the present DMK government too is not willing to provide a remedy for the victims. "A logical solution to this case would be to hire those who were victimised and provide them the job positions they deserve, after removing those who obtained the job through illegal means. The public will have faith in the system only if they witness that someone who illegally acquired a job by giving bribes or through recommendations cannot sustain their position for long. The Anti-Corruption Movement will try our best to provide this remedy to those who have been scammed," he said.
In light of the recent developments, the victims are now planning to approach Chief Minister MK Stalin afresh, demanding the cancellation of the illegal appointments.
