BENGALURU: A senior minister in the Siddaramaiah government faces imminent arrest in a recent case pertaining to hoarding of Rs 5.7 crore in new Rs 2,000 notes. According to a source, the CM’s cabinet colleagues were informed of the minister’s imminent arrest last week.The Enforcement Directorate is contemplating prosecuting the minister and is reportedly waiting for the political go-ahead before making a move.The suspended government official, S C Jayachandra , chief project officer of Karnataka State Highways Development Project, now in the custody of Enforcement Directorate, reportedly spilled the beans on the involvement of two ministers but the agency has managed to get evidence against one of them. The ED had arrested Jayachandra last Monday under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act.In damage control mode, chief minister Siddaramaiah had suspended Jayachandra and TN Chikkarayappa, MD of Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd. According to a source, the government verbally asked the Anti-Corruption Bureau to take up the case, purportedly to show that the government was in no way concerned with the case.ED sources said the two ministers were partners in the crime and had co-opted two business houses, a bank manager and PWD and irrigation contractors to convert their black money into white after November 8. In his statement after the raid, Jayachandra had said that the money didn’t belong to him and was to be paid to ministers, presumably in Karnataka.