April 26, 2018
Chennai : Persistence paid off for the opposition DMK that has been going hammer and tongs against the Edapaddi Palaniswami government on the Gukta scam, in which a senior state minister and a top police official were allegedly to be involved. In a major victory for the opposition DMK, the Madras High Court on Thursday ordered a CBI probe into the whole affair.
Disposing of a petition filed by senior DMK leader and MLA J Anbazhagan, the High Court ordered CBI probe into the Gukta scam in which several police officials and AIADMK leaders are also alleged to be involved.
The case has its roots when Income Tax department searched the offices, residences and store houses of a gutka manufacturer in Tamil Nadu in 2016 and seized a diary listing out alleged bribe payments to various officials. In the state of Tamil Nadu, it is illegal to manufacture, store and sell W (mouth freshener that is harmful and cancer causing. TN has banned manufacture and storage of gutka, which is a tobacco product.
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The allegations are that the banned product is freely available in the market with the alleged connivance of police officials.
Other than the DMK, which had raised the issue in state assembly, other opposition parties too have been demanding a CBI probe into the matter, but the government ignored all pleas.
elcoming the High Court order PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss demanded the resignation of Chief Minister K.Palaniswami and his government. “it is clear that the high court orders shows that it has no faith in the state government to carry out an impartial probe,” Ramadoss said.
The government can influence the probe and hence it must resign, the PMK founder said.