Chennai: PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Monday disputed the state government’s claim that the report on gutka sent by Income Tax department had been missing and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Chief Secretary Girija Vaidhyanathan for “trying to save the culprits in the scam”.
Alleging attempts to cover up the gutka scam, he pointed out that Chief Secretary Girija Vaidhyanathan had told the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court that no report on gutka was received by the state government. The Chief Secretary office had given acknowledgement for receiving the IT report on gutka scam, Ramadoss asserted.
Describing the missing of the report as a drama by the state government to hide its mistake, the PMK leader said retrieving the IT document is not a difficult job since a copy of the same had been sent to the DGP office.
An enquiry could be commenced based on the document or a new copy could be obtained from the IT department itself, he said. “The state government, which told the high court that it did not receive any IT report is now saying that it is missing, showing that stealing takes place in the Secretariat itself. The government should own responsibility for such a lapse and resign”, he said.
Since, the rulers of the state and officials are involved in the scam, no justice would be obtained in Tamil Nadu police enquiry, he said and demanded a CBI probe into the incident.
