Gutkha scam: Stalin seeks sacking of Minister, DGP
Chennai, Sep 7 : DMK President M.K. Stalin on Friday expressed shock that no action has been taken against Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Minister C. Vijaya Baskar and DGP T.K. Rajendran after CBI raids related to the gutkha scam and again demanded their sacking as well as arrest.
Stalin said he was shocked over the "inaction" of the Tamil Nadu government and Governor Banwarilal Purohit in moving against the two.
It is shocking that even after the CBI raids at the residences of Baskar and Rajendran the government had not dismissed them and even the Governor had not taken any action, he said in a statement here.
The DMK leader said it was not clear why Baskar and Rajendran, who are accused of accepting bribes from a gutka manufacturer, have not been arrested yet while bribe-giver gutkha manufacturer A.V. Mahdava Rao, intermediary and government officials were arrested by CBI on Thursday.
On Septembr 5, the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the houses of Baskar, Rajendran, gutkha manufacturer Rao and several state and central government officials in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh as a part of investigating the alleged payment and receipt of bribes.
Stalin said that as per a diary noting by Rao a bribe of Rs 60 lakh was allegedly paid on April 21, May 20 and June 20 in 2016 to 'CP'.
He alleged that Rao told Income Tax officials that 'CP' stood for Commissioner of Police.
The Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly said that it was Rajendran who was then the Commissioner of Police in Chennai.
Stalin said that another diary noting mentioned Rs 56 lakh paid to 'HM' between April 1, 2016 and June 15, 2016 and as per Rao 'HM' means Health Minister.
Citing other diary entries, Stalin said Rs 20 lakh was given to a Joint Police Commissioner on November 4, 2015, December 10, 2015 and Jauary 2, 2016.
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Video Does Not Show S Jaishankar Being Asked To Leave Trump’s Inauguration
CLAIM: Video shows External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar being asked to leave Trump's inauguration ceremony.
FACT CHECK: The live streaming of the event shows a staffer requesting a photographer, who was taking pictures, to move back from the front row, and not S Jaishankar.
A video from Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony as the 47th president of the United States has surfaced with false claims that it shows External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar being asked to leave the ceremony midway.
BOOM went through the live streaming of the event and found that a staffer was requesting a photographer who was taking pictures, to move back from the front row, and not Jaishankar. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met foreign ministers from Japan and Australia at the ceremony. In the photographs shared from his X handle, Jaishankar can be seen seated in the front row.
A user on X posted the video with the below caption.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
The video was streamed live on the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies' official YouTube channel on January 20, 2025.
From the 3:08:30 timestamp of the video, we found that a photographer was capturing moments from Trump's inaugural ceremony from various angles. At one point, she is seen stepping in front of External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, seated in the front row, to take photographs of the event.
After noticing the woman photographer taking pictures from the front row, a staffer came towards her, called the photographer, and requested her to move back. This can be seen from timestamp 3:08:50.
The staffer was then seen leaving the front row shortly after making the request. At the timestamp 3:09:18, the photographer can be seen moving back. Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar can be seen remaining seated in his position.
We then zoomed in on the video and was able to establish that it was the woman photographer and not Jaishankar, who was asked to move back. It can also be noticed that the staffer was not looking at Jaishankar, but instead looking at the photographer, as she was taking pictures from a lower angle.
That specific part of the live stream is shown below.
Propagandist spreading disinfo with a clip from #TrumpInauguration where EAM @DrSJaishankar sat in first row superseding many dignitaries showing US-India ties
— Harry Minati (@harryminat1) January 21, 2025
Claims were made that @DrSJaishankar was asked by a lady to go back, it was actually the cameraman not @DrSJaishankar pic.twitter.com/3Qsp8z3xJ8
(This story was originally published by boomlive.in, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)
