CHENNAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has filed the First Information Report (FIR) in the multi-crore gutka scam case, on Wednesday conducted raids at 35 places including the residences of Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar and Director General of Police T K Rajendran.
A CBI spokesman said CBI had conducted searches at the residences of Rajendran in Nolambur, former Chennai Police Commissioner S George in Mogappair and Vijaya Baskar on Greenways Road. The raids carried out from around 7.30 am, also targeted five houses located in Mambalam besides premises at Tiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Puducherry, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.
Baskar, in a statement Wednesday evening, said he would face the “baseless allegations” against him “legally and politically and come out of it”. “I always cooperated in inquiries. Today also I rendered my full cooperation... I haven’t seen Madhava Rao in person or otherwise. These are baseless allegations levelled against me by my political rivals,” he said, even as DMK chief M K Stalin called for resignations of Baskar and Rajendran.
Premises of former minister B V Ramana, Assistant Police Commissioner Mannar Mannan, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Villupuram Town) Shankar and Inspector Sampath Kumar were also raided, CBI said, adding that raids were carried out at the premises of food safety and drug administration officials too, including Dr P Senthil Murgan, Dr Laxmi Naryan and E Siva Kumar, who had challenged the Madras High Court order on a CBI probe into the scam.
Central Excise and Sales Tax department officials were not spared either. Assistant Commissioner of Central Excise Gulzar Begum, R K Pandiyan and Seshadri’s premises were raided. The premises of Paneerselvam, Kurinjiselvam and Ganesan of Sales Tax department were raided. CBI searched premises of Jayem Group promoters and directors: AV Madhav Rao, Uma Shankar Gupta and Sreenivas Rao.
The action comes after CBI filed a case on a HC order issued while disposing of a writ petition filed by DMK MLA J Anbazhagan who alleged the banned gutka was being manufactured, and sold in TN. The FIR was registered against unidentified officials of TN government, Central Excise and Food Safety departments. Enforcement Directorate launched a separate probe. P3
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