The CBI on Friday carried out searches at the Delhi residence of the Deputy Director General of Competition Commission of India (CCI) in connection with the Tamil Nadu gutkha scam, agency officials said.
The searches were conducted at the East Delhi residence of Ravi Chandran, the CCI Deputy Director General who was earlier posted as Senior Intelligence Officer at the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) in Chennai, the officials said.
The CBI move comes after getting inputs about Chandran’s suspected role in the scam as a DGCEI officer during 2013-15, they said.
The agency also questioned the then Assistant Commissioner at DGCEI, S Sridhar whose premises were searched on Thursday. Additional Commissioner of Goods and Services Tax (GST) Senthil Valavan, whose premises were also searched on Thursday, has been summoned by the agency to join the probe, they further said.
The scam came to light on July 8, 2017, when Income Tax Department sleuths raided the godown, offices and residences of a pan masala and gutkha (a concoction of tobacco and pan masala) manufacturer in Tamil Nadu, who had been facing charges of tax evasion to the tune of Rs 250 crore.
The manufacture, storage and sale of the chewable forms of tobacco, including gutkha and pan masala were banned by the Tamil Nadu Government in 2013.