The Madras High Court on Thursday ordered a CBI probe into a illegal gutkha business in Tamil Nadu that allegedly involves ministers and incumbent Director General of Police T.K. Rajendran.
The first Division Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose passed the order on two public interest litigation petitions, one filed by DMK MLA J. Anbazhagan and the other by activist ‘Traffic’ K.R. Ramaswamy.
“The underground gutkha business is a crime against society and, therefore, we deem it fit to order a CBI probe into the issue,” the judges said while pronouncing their verdict on the two cases in which the arguments concluded and judgement was reserved in last January.
The judges, however, made it clear that a CBI probe ordered by them should not be construed as a definite conclusion with respect to the complicity of any of the persons involved in the alleged business and that it was up to the investigating agency to unearth the truth.
The issue, related to alleged payment of huge bribes to ministers and some top police officers for manufacture and sale of gutkha, was brought to light by The Hindu following searches conducted by the Income Tax department on the business premises of the manufacturers of gutkha, a banned substance in the State.
I-T Dept. supports plea for CBI probe
The I-T Department had also supported the plea for a CBI probe on the ground that documents recovered by it from a gutkha manufacturer during a 2016 raid revealed payment of huge amount of bribe to ministers and top police officers to desist from taking action against the sale of the product.
Additional Solicitor General G. Rajagopalan had told the first Division Bench that a “secret letter” written by the I-T department with regard to the scam on August 11, 2016, to the then Chief Secretary and Director General of Police were recovered from rooms occupied by V.K. Sasikala at Veda Nilayam, residence of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, recently.
He said that it would be appropriate to hand over the investigation to an independent agency since the allegations were against the State police officials, including the incumbent DGP, who was Commissioner of Police, Chennai city, during the scam.
