Chennai: DMK working president M.K. Stalin on Saturday pointed out that the appeal in the Supreme Court against the Madras high court ordering CBI probe into the gutkha scam was filed by a health inspector and wondered how the junior cadre government official found the money to fund the expensive litigation in the top court. The inference was apparent: the petitioner has influential interests backing the effort.
Noting that health inspector Sivakumar had engaged senior lawyer and former Attorney General Mukul Ratogi to fight his case in the Supreme Court, Stalin said legitimate question arises naturally as to how a government employee - a health inspector, is able to engage such a high profile lawyer to argue the case in the Supreme Court. “This has not only come as a surprise but also raises eyebrows,” he added.
“This health inspector is already accused in the ‘Gutka Diary’ in which the names of health minister Dr Vijayabaskar and Tamil Nadu DGP T. K. Rajendran, also figure. If the CBI investigates the scam, then health minister and DGP will land in trouble. Hence, Sivakumar is being used by the health minister and DGP to prevent the implementation of the High Court directive and also cause a delay,” he said.
The DMK leader alleged that both the health minister and DGP were using Sivakumar as a “mask” to challenge the case in the apex court. “So long as these two remain in their respective positions, they would hinder a fair investigation in the scam, whenever opportunity permits. Hence, both Vijayabaskar and Rajendran should step down on their own or the Chief Minister should remove them,” Mr Stalin appealed.
He claimed that the health inspector’s “courage” to challenge the high court order obviously indicated the “behind the screen role” of health minister and DGP. Stalin appealed to the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to convey to the supreme court, when the case comes for hearing, that there is no need for an appeal and that the state government had no objection whatsoever to the CBI probe. He also urged the CM to order a DVAC probe to unearth Sivakumar’s source of funding.
