CHENNAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a supplementary chargesheet in the gutkha scam case against 21 people, including former AIADMK ministers C Vijayabaskar and B V Ramanaa, before the CBI special court in Chennai a few days ago.
This is the first time the names of the former ministers are mentioned in the charge sheet in the case which has been under probe by multiple agencies since 2017. Vijayabaskar is now the MLA of Viralimalai assembly constituency.
The chargesheet also includes the names of two former DGP-rank officials, former Chennai police commissioner S George and former director general of police T K Rajendran. The supplementary chargesheet comes four years after the first one was filed by the agency on November 16, 2018.
The preliminary chargesheet was filed after the CBI raided 35 locations across Chennai, Tiruvallur, Thoothukudi, Guntur (Andhra Pradesh), Mumbai and Bengaluru, including properties linked to Vijayabaskar, Rajendran, George and Ramanaa, and several other top officials of the central excise, food safety and health departments
High Court asked CBI to probe into all angles
The DMK government on July 23, 2022, granted permission to the investigating agency to proceed against the former ministers under Section 120-B of IPC with Sections 7, 11, 12 and 13 (2) read with 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988.
The CBI took up the case based on a Madras High Court order on April 26, 2018. The court directed the CBI to probe all aspects of the offence of illegal manufacture, import, supply, distribution and sale of gutkha and other forms of chewable tobacco products banned in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
The gutkha scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when income tax sleuths raided offices and residences of Jayam Industries (now known as Annamalai Industries) over charges of tax evasion of Rs 250 crore and seized a diary containing incriminating evidence linked to top officials of the state.
The case gained further prominence after IT sleuths while checking former CM J Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence stumbled upon letters exchanged between the Income Tax Department and top bureaucrats of the state over the case.
In June 2018, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigated the scam under Prevention of Money Laundering Act and on July 2019, the ED attached 174 immovable properties in TN, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh valued at Rs 243.80 crore and moveable properties such as shares and vehicles worth Rs 2.29 crore.