A day after the Enforcement Directorate summoned retired Tamil Nadu DGP TK Rajendran and Additional Commissioner of Police R Dhinakaran to appear before it in the gutkha scam, the agency has also summoned more top police officers in connection with the case.
According to reports, the other police officers summoned by the agency include retired DGP of Tamil Nadu S George, Deputy Commissioners of Police Vimala and Jayakumar, Assistant Commissioner of Police Mannar Mannan. The agency is also investigating officials from the Food Safety and Excise departments in the case.
TNM has accessed a copy of the summons sent by the ED to the DGP and Additional Commissioner and they have been asked to appear before Assistant Director S Karthikeyan on December 3. They were summoned under sub-section (2) and (3) of the section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. The section gives the Director, Additional Director, Joint Director, Deputy Director or Assistant Director the power to summon any person whose attendance he considers necessary whether to give evidence or to produce any records during the course of any investigation or proceeding
Additional Commissioner R Dhinakaran was infact a recepient of the Chief Minister's police medal for Excellence on Independence day this year.
The gutkha case concerns allegations of senior officials from the government of Tamil Nadu taking a bribe to allow the manufacture and sale of Gutkha in the state. In Tamil Nadu, gutkha and gutkha products are banned by law. The CBI had initiated searches in the residences of DGP Rajendran, S George and also in the residence of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar. The searches took place in September 2018, after it took over the case from the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC). The Enforcement Directorate has also attached properties worth Rs 246 crore in connection with the case. The attached property includes movable and immovable property and the property is spread across various locations in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh while the movable assets include vehicles and shares. The ED had conducted an inquiry on the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in May 2018 based on the directions of the Madras High Court.
The scam came to light in 2016 when Income tax officials conducted searches on the properties of a pan masala and gutkha manufacturer in Tamil Nadu for evading taxes to the tune of Rs 250 crore. A diary, discovered during the searches, had names of those who had allegedly been paid off by the gutkha manufacturer including that of C Vijayabaskar, the Tamil Nadu health minister. Many senior police officers and bureaucrats were named in connection with the scam including TK Rajendran, S George, several officials in the Department of Health and Food Safety and local councillors. The main allegation was the payoffs received by these persons from gutkha baron Madhava Rao.