CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday observed that the way the Tamil Nadu government opposes a simple Public Interest Litigation, which sought to transfer the investigation into the gutka scam to the CBI, prompts it to go deeper into the issue.
The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose made the above observation orally while hearing arguments on the PIL filed by DMK MLA J. Anbazhagan.
The bench said, “Why such strong resistance?. When there are different agencies and states involved, why cannot the CBI handle the case and the state provide assistance to it”.
Earlier, Advocate general Vijay Narayan submitted that the presence of two or more central government officials in the suspect list does not automatically warrant a CBI probe.
Additional advocate general S.R. Rajagopalan, appearing for Food Safety department submitted the department has so far seized and destroyed over 1,19,650 kgs of banned gutka products across the state, he added.
Senior counsel P. Wilson submitted that even the FIR was filed only after the issue was highlighted in the state assembly by the opposition leader. When such was the position, how could we accept that DVAC would do a fair investigation? The scam took place in more than one state leading to interstate ramifications. The bench adjourned the case to January 30 for filing written submissions.
