Monday, August 26, 2019

Final chargesheet in gutkha scam soon
CBI might implicate senior police officials


26/08/2019, S. VIJAY KUMAR,CHENNAI

The Central Bureau of Investigation is expected to file the second and final chargesheet in the gutkha scam soon.

Sources in the agency say senior police officers, a former Minister and two politically well-connected people among others were likely to be implicated based on prosecution witness statements, documentary and technical evidence.

The Anti-Corruption-III Unit of the CBI, New Delhi, that is investigating the scam, had earlier arrested six persons, including three officials and filed the first chargesheet against them.

Investigators recorded statements of several dozen witnesses and suspects in the case and also perused technical evidence to corroborate crucial points.

Going by the Book of Accounts seized from the premises of the gutkha manufacturing company, ₹39.91 crore was paid to suspects by two or three agents on different dates.

Police were verifying these claims with the help of certain technical inputs, a senior police official said on Sunday.

The agency is probing allegations that a State Minister, a former Minister, senior IPS officers and others took bribes to facilitate the storage, transportation and sale of the contraband in Chennai city. “With almost all witnesses and suspects examined in the case, the CBI is expected to conclude the investigation and file the second and final chargesheet in a couple of months,” the official said.

In a related development, the Enforcement Directorate which has registered a Prevention of Money Laundering Act case against the accused people had recently attached 174 immovable properties located in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh, having a market value of ₹243.80 crore.

Three partners

The assets belonged to three partners of the gutkha firm. Some more assets in the form of shares and vehicles worth ₹2.29 crore were also provisionally attached.

The gutkha scam was exposed by The Hindu in June 2017.

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