TN DGP should quit: DMK MLA

DMK legislator J. Anbazhagan on Wednesday demanded that Tamil Nadu's Director General of Police (DGP) T.K. Rajendran must quit, after the CBI raided his residence in connection with a gutkha scam.

It was on Anbazhagan's petition that the Madras High Court ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the scam.

Anbazhagan said Rajendran was on extension. Top officials who are given an extension should have an unblemished service record. With Rajendran's residence being raided by the CBI, he should step down.

"The probe seems to be proceeding on the right track under the CBI. Whether a case will be filed against the scamsters or not will have to be seen.

"If no case is filed, then we may have to approach the Madras High Court again," Anbazhagan told IANS.

The case is related to an Income Tax Department raid in the offices, residences and godowns of a gutkha manufacturer in Tamil Nadu in 2016.

A diary was then seized which listed alleged bribes paid to various officials amounting to about Rs 39.31 crore.

The Tamil Nadu government has banned the manufacture and storage of gutkha -- a tobacco product -- since 2013. However, the product was reportedly available in the market with the alleged connivance of police officers and others.

Several political parties had demanded a CBI probe into the issue but the AIADMK government did not agree.

In June, the Enforcement Directorate registered a money laundering case against unnamed government officials in Tamil Nadu based on a first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI in May.

Despite opposition from opposition parties, Rajendran was given a two-year extension in 2018.

--IANS

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