The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested five people, including an official each of the Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration and Central Excise Department, in connection with the gutka scam, the Hindustan Times reported.
The arrests follow searches at 35 locations across Chennai, Thiruvallur, Tuticorin, Guntur, Mumbai and Bengaluru on Wednesday. Residences of Minister of Health C Vijayabaskar, Tamil Nadu Director General of Police TK Rajendran, former Chennai Police Commissioner S George, and former state minister BV Ramana were raided.
On Thursday morning, the agency arrested promoters of Jayam Industries, AV Madhav Rao and Uma Shankar Gupta, food safety official P Senthil Kumar and central excise superintendent NK Pandian. A third promoter of Jayam industries, PV Srinivasa Rao, was also arrested later on Thursday.
They had all been questioned till late on Wednesday before being put under arrest, The Indian Express reported quoting unidentified CBI officials.
Madhav Rao, Gupta and Srinivas Rao are accused of selling the MDM brand of gutka in Tamil Nadu, despite a ban on the sale of tobacco products, with the connivance of officials, politicians and regulatory authorities, PTI reported, quoting an unidentified CBI official.
Jayam Industries was renamed Annamalai Industries to facilitate the continued sale of the banned product, the official said.
The alleged scam came to light in July 8, 2016 when Income Tax officials raided Jayam Industries on tax evasion charges. During the raid, officials seized an accounts book containing the names of those who were allegedly paid off by the gutka manufacturers, reported The Indian Express.
The case
In July 2016, raids were conducted at the godown, offices and residences of Annamalai Industries, a gutka manufacturer in Chennai on charges of evading Rs 250 crore in taxes. During the raid, officials found a diary with the names of those believed to have been paid off in order to facilitate the sale of banned tobacco products in the city. The health minister was among those mentioned in the diary.
Documents showed that Rs 40 crore was paid to Vijayabaskar and senior officials. Senior police officers and bureaucrats, including Rajendran, George, several officials in the department of Health and Food Safety and local councillors were named in connection with the scam
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