Fresh evidence has emerged to establish that the Income Tax Department had in 2016 indeed written to the Chief Secretary and Director-General of Police about the gutkha scam indicating bribes allegedly paid to Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar and top police officers. The letters were even acknowledged by the offices of the State’s top bureaucrat and police officer.
The documents, accessed by The Hindu, effectively counter the Tamil Nadu Government’s claim that it had not received any “secret” note from the I-T Department on the multi-crore scam.
Documents establish that a day after submitting a secret note containing details of bribes allegedly paid by a leading gutkha manufacturer, the Income Department had written another letter to then Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao expressing apprehension about some policemen leaking information on searches. The letter dated August 13, 2016, alleged that whenever police forces were sought for search or seizure operations, a few police personnel alerted all the prominent tax payers in the locality in an attempt to curry favour with them.