Gutka scam in Tamil Nadu: Here's what has happened so far

During the raids, the department seized a diary containing names of those who had been allegedly paid by the gutka manufacturers. The list reportedly included names of politicians and senior police officers.

When did the CBI probe start?

The case was sent to the CBI by the Madras High Court in April this year on the plea of DMK legislator J Anbazhagan. In May, the agency had registered an FIR against unidentified officials of the Tamil Nadu government, Central Excise Department and the Food Safety Department.

What is the present status of the case?

Nearly three months after registering an FIR, the CBI begun its raids. On September 5, the agency officials raided 40 places across the state, including the premises of state Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and state Director General of Police (DGP) TK Rajendran.

This is perhaps for the first time that the CBI has raided a serving police chief of a state. For Tamil Nadu Health Minister C Vijayabaskar, it was a double whammy as he is already under the scanner of the Income Tax Department, which raided his premises last year.

"The places searched were residential premises of the promoters/directors of the company and other public servants including officials of Sales Tax Department, Customs and Central Excise, Food Safety and Drug Administration Department and jurisdictional police officials," a CBI spokesperson told news agency PTI.

As news about the raids at Vijayabaskar and Rajendran’s place spread, the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the CPI (M) sought their resignations or the state governor's intervention to sack them.