Gutkha scam: ED summons ex-TN DGP TK Rajendran

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has summoned former Tamil Nadu DGP, TK Rajendran to appear before agency officials in connection with a money-laundering probe it is conducting with respect to the gutkha scam that was unearthed in the state. Sources here said that Rajendran has been asked to appear before agency officials on December 2 and that Inspector General of Police Dhinakaran has also been asked to appear before the agency on December 3.

The ED has found that AV Madhava Rao, PV Srinivasa Rao, Tallam Uma Shankar Gupta and others had associated to illegally manufacture and sell Gutkha products in the southern state, with a turnover of Rs 639.40 crore between June 2013 to June 2016.

The case, when exposed, had shown that these manufacturers of the illegal tobacco product had paid large sums as kickbacks to senior state government officials, including a Cabinet minister and several senior IPS officers in the state between 2014 and 2016 to continue manufacture, storage and sale of the substance banned by the state government in 2013.

In fact, Rajendran came under the scanner when the CBI conducted raids at his premises in connection with the case in September last year. CBI sleuths had also raided premises of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar at the time in the case, after credible

suspicion that he might have received parts of the

kickbacks.

The ED had started its parallel money-laundering probe in the case after the Central Bureau of Investigation had taken it up on orders of the Madras High Court in May, last year. The financial probe agency had also attached assets worth around Rs 246 crore in the case in July this year, which included a whopping 174 immovable assets.