Raids politically motivated to finish my political career claims TN Health minister

Chennai: Health minister Dr C. Vijayabaskar who on Wednesday faced CBI knocking at his doors claimed that his “political adversaries engineered a plot to finish off his political career. But, he would face the case legally and politically too and come out ‘clean,’ he asserted.

Barely hours after the CBI began raids at his residence here and properties across the state, the health minister refuted the accusations levelled against him and said, “even now I am say that I am not guilty and hence I am not scared. I humbly assure you all that I will face this accusation legally and politically and will overcome it.”

 The minister who last year, faced raid by the income tax department, said in a statement here that he was a law abiding citizen. 

“Amma’s government banned gutka and paan masala on May 23, 2013. Since then the government has been trying to implement the ban in the most stringent way. I have not met Madhav Rao, related to gutka and paan masala directly or indirectly. People are trying to defame me and trying to get me out of politics due to enmity by filing false cases against me,” he claimed.

Averring that he was extending “full cooperation” to the authorities, he said, “in the above case based on a complaint filed by DMK, the Madras High Court transferred it to CBI. As a law abiding citizen, I am ready to cooperate to lead the case to its natural conclusion.”

 It was but natural for a person like him, who has worked for the betterment of the state by making the health department one of the best in the country, to be accused of such things by political enemies, he said merely because he is accused, he does not become a criminal. “Whenever similar setbacks happened in my political life, I have always overcome them and continued to thrive in politics and serve the people,” he said and added “madiyil ganamirunthal, vazhiyil bhayamirukkum” (we will have fear on the way if we have weight in our waists (money tied to belts).