Under legal review, Raj Bhavan on cases against 4 former ministers

The Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan on Thursday clarified why it was yet to grant sanction to prosecute four former AIADMK ministers in two cases of corruption, saying that the alleged gutkha scam being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was under legal examination and that the state’s anti-corruption wing was yet to submit a report for further action in an anti-corruption matter.

The Raj Bhavan’s response came a day after Tamil Nadu’s law minister S Regupathy wrote to governor R N Ravi seeking speedy action in the two cases and 13 other bills pending with him.

The issue sparked a political controversy again on Thursday with the law minister saying the Raj Bhavan’s statement was “misleading”.

“The media reports have appeared regarding a letter of the Law Minister of the State Government that sanction for prosecution against the following persons who were Ministers in the previous Government,” the Raj Bhavan said, naming the ministers.

“There has been no response to my letter, but a press release has come from the PRO of Raj Bhavan,” Regupathy said. “The legal examination is being conducted by whom? If the governor is conducting his legal examination, then we cannot be responsible for it. He is trying to escape with this reply to save the former AIADMK ministers...all the three points of information from them (Raj Bhavan) are wrong.”

One of the cases pertains to the illegal sale of gutkha in Tamil Nadu. Income Tax officials unearthed the alleged scam in July 2016. After a Madras high court, the CBI took over the case from the Tamil Nadu Police in 2018, in which the agency when filed a charge sheet against former C health minister Vijayabaskar and former commercial taxes minister B V Ramana, along with senior police officers T K Rajendran and S George. They are accused of taking bribes amounting to ₹39.91 crore to help transport, store and sell banned gutkha products in Chennai. Gutkha and paan masala have remained banned in Tamil Nadu since 2013.

In the second case, former ministers K C Veeramani and M R Vijayabaskar are facing corruption charges related to acquiring assets disappropriate to their known sources of income during the previous AIADMK regime from 2011 to 2021 filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC). Letters were sent from the government to the governor on this case on September 12 last year, and again on May 15.

The Raj Bhavan said that the governor’s office was yet to receive a reference or request about Vijayabhaskar from the state government and that the action against Veeramani could not be “acted upon because the state government has to submit a duly authenticated copy of the investigation report for further action”.

On Veeramani, the law minister said, on Thursday, that all the documents, including the originals have been sent to the governor. “We have sent him all the authenticated copies. On Vijayabhaskar, the Raj Bhavan signed and received our documents on May 15.”

In the alleged gutkha scam, the state government in June granted permission to CBI to prosecute the two former state ministers, the two retired police officers, and eight other officials. A letter seeking to sanction their prosecution was sent from the state cabinet to the governor on September 12 last year.

All four ministers in the dock are powerful AIADMK leaders who were part of the council of ministers of former chief ministers J Jayalalithaa followed by Edappadi Palaniswami.

The dispute marks the latest chapter in the ongoing friction between the state government and Ravi, whom the former has accused of functioning like an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Last week, in a move that experts said lacked either constitutional or legal basis, the Tamil Nadu Governor dismissed arrested DMK minister V Senthil Balaji from the council of ministers, incensing the state government, and he backtracked a few hours later.

“We have been saying from the beginning that this is vendetta politics by the DMK against us,” said a senior AIADMK leader and close aide of EPS. “The Governor is following procedure and doing his duty. We will face all the cases against us legally.”