The Tamil Nadu government has accorded sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute former Ministers B.V. Ramana and C. Vijayabaskar, retired Directors-General of Police S. George and T.K. Rajendran and seven others in what has now come to be called the gutkha scam.
According to official sources, the CBI’s Anti-Corruption Unit (III), New Delhi, had sent a proposal to the State government seeking sanction to prosecute Ramana alias B. Venkatramana, the then Minister of Commercial Taxes; V.S. Kurinjiselvan, the then Deputy Commissioner, Enforcement, Commercial Tax Department, Chennai; S. Ganesan, the then Deputy Commercial Tax Officer, Chennai; C. Vijayabaskar, the then Minister of Health; Lakshmi Narayanan, the then Designated Officer, Food Safety Department, Chennai; P. Murugan, the then Food Safety Officer, Gummudipopondi Block, Tiruvallur; S. George, the then Commissioner of Police, Chennai; T.K. Rajendran, the then Commissioner of Police, Chennai; R. Mannar Mannan, the then Assistant Commissioner of Police, Puzhal Range, Chennai; V. Sampath, the then Inspector of Police, Red Hills, Chennai, and A. Palani, the then Councillor/Chairman of the Health Committee, Chennai Corporation, under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
