The Neta-Cop Gutka nexus in Tamil Nadu

In a survey conducted by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in India in 2006, it was found that the teenagers between the age of 13 and 16 were addicted to Tobacco. 3.6 % of the teenagers were addicted to cigarettes and rest 15% were addicted to Gutkha. In 2009-10, the figures had almost doubled.

In 2012, 14 states banned Gutkha which includes Bihar, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. From May 9th, 2013, the sale and storage of gutkha was banned in Tamil Nadu. "In an effort to prevent cancer due to tobacco (consumption), the government led by me has decided to ban gutka and pan masala", said Jayalalitha during the Assembly meeting.

Several questions were raised when gutkha was banned in the state. Most of the people were not aware of why was gutkha getting banned while other products which have tobacco in them were not.

Several documents were seized from the premises and a consolidated document was made which had a list of names of the people involved and also the bribery money fed to them.

Payments on several tranches were made to police commissioners of Chennai. At the time the two police commissioners of Chennai were S George and TK Rajendran. Page 87 of the document revealed that the Health Minister of Tamil Nadu Dr. C. Vijaya Baskar was also bribed for 56 lakhs at one tranche. Though, the 'name' of the health minister was not mentioned in the document.

This huge raid was conducted mainly on charges of Tax evasion. They found 30 crores worth of Gutkha and the documents that were seized belonged to the founder of the firm name Madhava Rao. It contained all the information about the dealers, manufacturers, government servants who were involved in the scam. on who are the dealers and who receives a portion of the sales and profits including their account numbers.

No legal actions were taken against the people mentioned in the documents. But since 2013 when the ban was enforced, 16 cases against gutkha business have been filed, out of which 14 are civil cases. Though the gutkha business involves thousands of people, only 5 retailers have been convicted till date and no legal action has been taken place against manufacturers of the gutkha brands.

Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration took a total of 43 samples of gutkha and tobacco from retailers across the city. And out of these 43 samples, legal actions were taken against 26 retailers. Later, only 5 of them were convicted. And those who were found guilty paid a fine of Rs. 10,000 and were later let off.

On December 26, 2016, the then commissioner of Chennai, S. George wrote a letter to the assembly. Where he explicitly mentioned that a lot of top officials have been receiving bribes regarding Gutkha supply in the city. In the letter, he went on to mention that he finished the first round of inquiries. Based on his letter, Ashok Kumar, the Director General of Police, and his friend in CBI collected a lot of information pertaining to this.

During a raid conducted by the Income-tax department, a copy of the Income Tax report to the Chief Secretary, the book of records and bank statements of Madhava Rao, an accomplice in MDM mark gutkha got on hold. The record uncovers that bribes were paid on different dates to the State Health Minister, two previous Commissioners of Police, two Joint Commissioners of Police and scores of others from different State and Central government offices. And it was mentioned as Incidental expenses.

Let's see what Jayram Venkatesan, an activist who runs an NGO, Arappor Iyakkam in Chennai has to say:

The research conducted by Deepak K, Angeline M, Vidhubala E, Sundaramoorthy C, Basumallik B 'Gutka ban in Chennai, India: is there any impact?' for International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health 2017 shows that despite the ban on manufacturing, sale, and consumption of gutka, it is being sold and consumed in the state.

To check the transport of banned gutka into Tamil Nadu by train, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has written to Indian Railways on March 14 seeking an action taken report on recent seizures in the state.

We found that it has been brought through railways and recently we have released a video that how at Madurai junction a train, Thirukkural express, that is just supposed to stop for 5 mins, is stopping for 20 to 30 mins to unload gutka right behind the engine. Which later was taken to the VIP gates and no checking was done. Operator, Station master, Parcel master, Railway Protection force, all are involved. We have given this compliant to Chief Railway Officer and they conducted a raid. They confiscated the gutka but more than a month has passed and no FIR has been made. There is no scope of punishment until an independent investigation is done. We need to make sure it is not sold near schools and other places. Top officials are also involved and we have to stop them. That is why we are fighting and of course there is lot more government pressure to not to act on this." Says Jayaram Venkatesan, Convener Arappor Iyyakam.

On March 13, 2018, Delhi-Kanyakumari Thirukkural bi-weekly express which had a stoppage of 5 minutes at Madurai station, stopped for 25-30 minutes. Later, it was found out that the extra time was taken to unload the smokeless tobacco products, mainly gutkha. The train was scheduled to stop for 5 minutes but from the last 3 years, it was stopping at the Madurai junction for 15-30 minutes. Right from the train driver to the railway department, a lot of people were involved in this case. A strict action was supposed to be taking places against the railway officials and the other people who were involved in this because apart from the violation of the Food Safety and Standard Act the railway rule that states that any cargo from a train can be unloaded at stations ONLY where the stoppage is 10 minutes or more. A strict action was supposed to take place against the people in involved but no action has taken place.

Apart from this, in the same month, Chennai police seized 2400 kg of gutkha from Chennai container terminal which was being smuggled from New Delhi. The sources have said that from Dadri in Delhi to Tondiarpet in Chennai.

And later in the same month, 4000 kg of gutkha was seized from Concor depot for which 2 people were arrested and 2 others absconded. S. Murugesan (27) and Surya (26) were arrested. The gutkha was found in a container holding the name Jai Amma Transports.

In the year 2017, the Chennai police have seized 748 kg of ganja and 22,575 kg of banned tobacco mainly gutkha in the city. And a total of 3,039 cases have been registered and 3281 people have been arrested in such cases.

The fact is that they are not selling Gutkha in Tamil Nadu directly. But in order to sell Gutkha, they bribe a lot of people and the incidental expenses are this money. So, to sell this product, a lot of money had been given to top officials. So once the product is ready to be sold in the market, even the lower level officials like inspectors and sub-inspectors are bribed so that the selling is not affected.

"The government at the legislative assembly said that the police under the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption will investigate this matter, unfortunately, this cannot be accepted as the police cannot investigate its own boss. DMK has filed a writ petition before the Madras High Court hoping that a central agency like CBI would look into the matter." Says Manuraj Shanmugasundaram, Spokesperson, DMK.

The gutkha consumers in Chennai, find it very easy to buy gutkha in the city. The shopkeepers either sells it to certain regular customers while at some places it is sold like candy, anyone can go there and buy gutka.

There is a way in which these gutkha consumers buy gutkha from the shops. They said that in order to buy gutkha you need to go to the shop and ask for pan masala, which is a code word to ask for gutka, and the shopkeeper will understand what you are asking for.

To test this, a small-scale investigation was conducted in some of the shops in Indira Nagar and Adyar and asked for pan masala. Some of the shops where gutkha was available only for the old customers denied having it in their shops and later when the old customers went there to buy gutkha, they got it from the same shop which denied having it, a few minutes ago.

Whereas, some shopkeepers were openly selling gutkha in their shops. The saddest part about this entire incident is that, while the investigation was being conducted there was a shop, which was opposite to a police station, the shopkeeper was openly selling the gutkha, as it was kept inside the shop in a way by which every customer can see it and ask for it.

Here is a sting operation conducted at a store at Indira Nagar in Adyar, Chennai:

There is a significant reduction in the sale after the ban. According to IJCMPH report, users do not find it difficult to procure as it is easily available; however, the price has increased up to 300%. Users feel guilty and fearful when using banned products. 23% users were motivated to quit, while some 60% consumers have made attempts to quit and some of them feel the need for professional support to quit. A significant difference has been observed in the number of sachets used before and after the ban by the users.

Commonly sold brands were and actually still are MDM, HANS, MAWA, RMD (previously known as Manikchand), Rajnigandha and Shanthi‟. When enquired about the source of supply of gutka products, shopkeepers reported that they bought gutka products either by themselves from the wholesale market (58.9%) or the agent supplied the products directly to the shop (41.1%). The shopkeepers also reported that there was a reduction in the number of consumers purchasing gutkha after the ban. After the state government banned the manufacture and sale of gutka products, gutka consumers are switching over to ' mawa '. Mawa is prepared by mixing small pieces of areca nut, processed tobacco and slaked lime. All the ingredients are rubbed on a polythene paper for a stipulated time. It is prepared in front of the customers.

According to the data in IJCMPH report, the cost of MDM increased from 33.3% to 300% after the ban. The cost of HANS increased from 20% to 166% after the ban. The cost of RMD increased from 37% to 166% after the ban. The cost of Mawa increased from 0% to 100% after the ban. A few Mawa sellers, did not increase the price, however, they reduced the quantity of Mawa by 50%. Of the shops that sold gutkha, 23% were located near educational institutions. When enquired about the effect of the ban, their responses were, 'no difference' (10%), ‘no effective enforcement’ (17.7%), ‘no use and the production needs to be stopped’ (10%), ‘products need to be seized at the entry point as it comes only from other states’ (3.3%), ‘officials are targeting only the small shop keepers’ (2.2%), ‘the users are addicted, they will continue to use anyway’ (3.3%), ‘smoking increased’(2.2%), ‘price has gone up and loss to the consumers’ (6.6%), ‘even if I stop selling, the neighboring shops are going to sell’ (3.3%), ‘So I am selling to keep up my business to sell other products’ (2.2%). A few welcomed the ban (44.4%), however, they blamed the Government for not being efficient in enforcing it (13.3%).

The consumer’s response data results, in IJCMPH report, were as follows: MDM (40%), HANS (26.7%), MAWA (20%), RMD (12.2%) and Shanthi (1.1%) were the products used by the study participants. All the consumers were aware of the ban and 90% reported that it was available at the regular shops they purchased at, 63.3% reported that it was available everywhere. The gutkha users (60%) reported that they did not have any difficulty in procuring the product.
Despite several actions taken by the Central Government, State Government and Tamil Nadu Police against the distribution, manufacture, storage and sale of gutkha, it is still available easily in the market. It is pretty clear that the sellers and the vendors do not have any fear of getting caught as they themselves are pretty aware that no action will be taken against them.