In the midst of embracing a faltering political base following the back to back defeats in the assembly polls and in the local body elections in his home turf, former ADMK Minister Rajendhra Bhalaji has seemingly been in a bad time due to the complaints that were charged against him. After an episode of a hide and seek with the police earlier this year, the former minister has now invited fresh trouble through a fresh complaint.

According to reports, a person named Shanmuganathan, who is a native of the Sivaganga district, has filed a complaint with the Chennai Police Commissioner in which he alleged that the former minister had cheated him with a fake promise of providing a government job. Shanmuganathan has claimed that Rajendhra Bhalaji's assistant Sudhakaran is close to him and that he told Shanmuganathan that he would provide a government job through the help of Rajendhra Bhalaji while the ADMK was in power. 

Shanmuganathan said that based on Sudhakaran's promise, he had approached the people who were seeking a government job and collected money from them from the tune of Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh. Shanmuganathan has further said that he had handed over the entire money to Sudhakaran at the Chief Secretariat. However, contrary to the promise, the people who gave money didn't get government jobs. 

The complainant has said that after being suspicious about the money, he had inquired Sudhakaran about the government jobs. Sudhakaran told him that he had handed over all the money to Rajenthra Bhalaji and he had been claiming that the jobs will be allotted soon. However, no allotments were made to the people who gave money due to which they had demanded the complainant to pay their money back. 

Following a dispute with them, Shanmuganathan has stated that he had gone to the Chief Secretariat and met Minister Rajenthra Bhalaji and the latter had maintained that the jobs would definitely be given to the people who had given the money. It was during this period that the ADMK had lost power and DMK formed the new government. After the transition, no government job was provided to the people who gave lakhs of money.

In his complaint, Shanmuganathan further alleged that when he approached Sudhakaran to get the money back, Sudhakaran's wife Devi Sri had told the former that her husband wasn't working with Rajenthra Bhalaji anymore and that she went on to threaten Shanmuganathan that he would be killed and thrown into Cooum river if he keeps disturbing Sudhakaran for the money. 

Following that development, Shanmuganathan had decided to approach the police and through his complaint, he had demanded action against former minister Rajendhra Bhalaji, Sudhakaran and his wife Devi Sri for cheating and threatening him. He had pleaded with the police department to recover the cheated money from them. The complaint has become fresh trouble for the former minister, who had already faced similar charges. 

It must be noted that Bhalaji, who served as the Minister of Dairy Development in the previous ADMK regime, was accused of cheating to the tune of Rs 3 crore last year under the fake promises of providing government jobs. The complaints were filed against him following which he had absconded. The former minister was at large for the three weeks and the special team of Tamil Nadu police had later arrested him from Hasan, Karnataka. He was taken into judicial custody and later, he was granted bail. Months after the episode of hide and seek with the police, a new cheating complaint has now been filed against him, pouring fresh trouble.