Chennai: The gutka scam came to light in July 2016 when J Jayalalithaa was at the helm. The I-T department raiding the premises of Madhava Rao of the MDM brand of gutka, recovered a diary with notings allegedly of payments to Vijayabhaskar, Rajendran and George. The bribes amounting to Rs 40 crore were allegedly paid to several public servants and other officials to permit free sale of gutkha, which is banned for sale in Tamil Nadu since 2013.
The I-T department then wrote a letter on August 11, 2016 to the then Chief Secretary P Ramamohana Rao recommending inquiry into the scam. While Rao subsequently admitted he got the I-T letter and claimed he forwarded it to CM Jayalalithaa, that letter went missing. Until it was picked up by the I-T sleuths during their searching of a room in Jaya’s Poes Garden bungalow that had been occupied by V K Sasikala. And that brings to focus the role of political bosses in the gutkha scam bosses right at the top.
With the then Chennai police commissioner George reportedly giving a report indicating involvement of only junior-level officers in the gutkha scam, the case was handed over to the state Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), which carried on with the probe at its own snail pace. Until DMK’s legislator J Anbazhagan moved the Madras high court and got the order for transferring the multi-crore case to the CBI in April this year.
While transferring the case to the CBI, the First Bench headed by the then Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose had said they deemed it fit to order the CBI probe since the underground gutkha business “is a crime against society”. The court, however, made clear that the order should not be construed as a definite conclusion on the complicity of anyone and it was now up to the CBI to unearth the truth.
After the transfer of the case and taking over the files, the CBI had questioned Madhava Rao in Chennai last week. The agency’s searches on Wednesday are based on the leads given by Rao, said sources, adding, “Much more is in the offing.”
