Allegations of kickbacks to politicians, others in TN surface

Allegations of payoffs to some Tamil Nadu ministers and others on the basis of a purported diary of sand mining baron J Sekar Reddy cropped up today, a charge rejected by him.
Reddy rubbished all allegations of his role in any payoff to any politician or ruling AIADMK leaders even as opposition DMK Working President M K Stalin and PMK chief S Ramadoss demanded a CBI inquiry into it and the resignation of ministers named in the purported diary.
The allegations have surfaced ahead of the crucial bypoll to RK Nagar seat in Chennai on December 21.
"They claim that it was my diary which was not at all written by me. I have never written a diary. They show some paper and claim it to be some diary," he told Tamil channel Sun News.

His comments come on a day when TV channels aired visuals of a purported diary of Reddy containing a list of names of persons, including some ministers, who were allegedly paid kickbacks and the publication of an investigative report by The Week magazine on the spurt in the wealth of Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam. The purported diary was reported to have been seized during the Income Tax searches on his premises.
"I do not consider this as something new. I have pointed this out several times," Stalin said and claimed that income tax raids had revealed 'payouts'"

"The ministers should resign from their posts and Governor should take action on it and a CBI inquiry should be held to bring out the truth," the DMK leader told reporters here when asked about the alleged kickbacks.
PMK too demanded the resignation of the ministers named in the so called 'diary' to facilitate a probe by the CBI.