CBI raids residences of TN Minister, DGP

New Delhi: In a possible first, premises of the police chief in Tamil Nadu were among 40 locations searched by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday in connection with Gutka scam, officials said.

After registering a case in May, the CBI carried out searches at 35 places in Tamil Nadu and five locations in Karnataka, Mumbai and Puducherry which included residential premises of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, Tamil Nadu DGP T K Rajendran and former police commissioner S George in Chennai.

The CBI has also raided an Indian Revenue Services officer in connection with the case, the officials said.

This is possibly a rare incident when the CBI has raided a serving Director General of Police of any state.

A 1984-batch IPS officer, Rajendran was made Director General of Police in 2016 after Ashok Kumar opted out for a voluntary retirement scheme. Officials said that Kumar, a 1982 batch IPS officer, was forced to seek VRS as he had recommended for a CBI probe in the Gutka scam.

The scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutka (a concoction of tobacco and pan masala) manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.

The manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutka and pan masala, were banned by the Tamil Nadu government in 2013.

During the raids, the department had seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the gutka manufacturers.

The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of a DMK leader.