Gutkha scam: Inspector grilled for 7 hours

“He was grilled till evening for nearly seven hours,” sources said, adding that he may have to appear before the investigators again on Saturday. Sampath Kumar was one of the inspectors who worked at the Red Hills police station, in whose jurisdiction the gutkha godown belonging to AV Madhava Rao functioned. He is currently posted in Thoothukudi district.

Madhava Rao of Annamalai Industries, along with other directors of the firm, had allegedly paid huge bribes to officials and ministers to carry out illegal trade of gutkha, which the State government had banned in 2013.

Meanwhile, the CBI court in Chennai extended the custody of Madhava Rao and Srinivasa Rao, promoters of Annamalai Industries, for three more days. The central agency had arrested the duo, along with three other suspects - Uma Shankar Gupta, another promoter, Dr P Senthil Murugan of State Food Safety and Drug Administration department, and N K Pandian, a superintendent of Central Excise department – last week. All five have been in CBI custody for five days.

Last week, the CBI team from Delhi had conducted searches at the residences of Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar, State police chief DGP T K Rajendran and former City Police Commissioner, retired DGP S George.

The case pertains to the illegal sale of gutkha, and alleged payment of bribe amounting to Rs 40 crore to government officials and ministers till 2016, the year Income Tax investigators stumbled up on a ledger that contained details of bribes given to different people. Sources added that the CBI has also seized a number of machinery from Annamalai Industries.