CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has sought a report from the special court for MP/MLA cases as to how it was going to complete the trial in the sensational multi-crore gutka scam case, in which former ministers and retired IPS officers have been accused, within three months.
Justice V Lakshminarayanan recently directed the special judge for MP/MLA cases court to “send a report as to how he proposes to complete the trial in the case which has so many accused and documents in a matter of three months.” He instructed that the report shall be filed by November 6 and posted the matter for hearing to the same date.
The direction was issued on a petition filed by former commissioner of Greater Chennai Police S George, one of the accused in the case, seeking the special court to remove the persons cited as prosecution witnesses whose statements under Section 161 CrPC were not furnished to him, or provide the Section 161 CrPC statements of all the prosecution witnesses whom the prosecution proposes to examine, in compliance with Sections 173(5) and 207 of CrPC.
The CBI had registered the case against 26 persons including former AIADMK ministers C Vijaya Bhaskar (currently with TVK), PV Ramana, retired IPS officers TK Rajendran and S George, along with state and central government officers for allegedly accepting bribe from the manufacturers of gutka to permit them to sell the banned tobacco products.
In July, 2026, the high court ordered the special court to complete the trial in three months; however, citing the voluminous documents and the number of witnesses to be examined, the special court had sought another three months’ time.
Justice Lakshminarayanan has sought the report following the submission of special public prosecutor K Srinivasan that the CBI proposes to examine more than 250 witnesses and about 498 documents in the court, and the state is still at pre-charge stage.
