The Tamil Nadu Government on Wednesday faced a major embarrassment as sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) swooped down on the residences of Health Minister C Vijay Bhaskar, State police chief TK Rajendran and high-profile former Commissioner of Chennai Police S George, former Minister BV Ramana and many others in connection with the gutkha scam.
The raids, which began at 7 am simultaneously at 40 locations in Chennai and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu, are being led by sleuths from New Delhi.
The residence of Vijaya Bhaskar had been raided by the Income-Tax Department in April 2017 and details of large cash transactions were seized.
Wednesday’s CBI raids are in connection with the investigation into the alleged pay-offs running to Rs 40 crore allegedly made by the manufacturers of MDM Gutkha to political leaders, Ministers, police officials and bureaucrats to facilitate the sale of gutkha in Tamil Nadu. The State had banned the production and sale of gutkha during J Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister.
The I-T Department in a raid on the premises of the MDM Group had seized documents which stated that crores of rupees were paid to Ministers and officials to facilitate the sale of gutkha in the State. Though the I-T Department wrote to then Chief Secretary Rama Mohan Rao asking for the State Government’s cooperation to widen the investigation into the pay-off, there was no response from the latter. The then Chief Secretary had stated that he had forwarded the same to the Chief Minister’s Office.
I-T officials, who raided Jayalalithaa’s residence in November 2016, had seized the letter written by the I-T Department to the Chief Secretary from the room used by VK Sasikala, Jayalalithaa’s associate who is serving jail term in Bangalore in the disproportionate assets case.
The Government of Edappadi Palaniswamy had handed over the case to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) which reportedly soft-pedalled the probe much to the anguish of the Opposition parties. Though the DVAC registered a case in September 2017, it failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated period of six months. One of the DMK leaders approached the Madras High Court with a plea to transfer the investigation to the Central agency as there were many Central Government officials listed as accused in the case.
The Madras High Court ordered the transfer of the case to the CBI. Though the State Government challenged the High Court order, the Supreme Court too upheld the CBI probe.
The Anti-Corruption Wing of the CBI had filed a case against unknown officials of various departments in the Central and Tamil Nadu Governments.
Last week saw the agency grilling Madhava Rao, proprietor, MDM Gutkha and his associates who are believed to have acted as couriers of money to all concerned.