Gutka: More firms under CBI lens

The Central Bureau of Investigation has widened the probe into the gutka scam by scrutinising exports of some more prominent pan masala companies even as the second lie-detector test of Goa Gutka owner J M Joshi appeared to have yielded nothing.

Some of the prominent gutka companies based in Lucknow were questioned for their export links with the Dubai-based
Golden Box Company, owned by underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, official sources said.

The prominent companies included Pan Parag, which denied any links with the Golden Box Company. They clarified that they had made some export consignments to Dubai but their market was limited.

Deepak Kothari denied that CBI officials had questioned him and clarified that his company had never dealt with the Golden Box Company.

CBI questioned executives of some Gutka companies to assess their transactions with the Dubai firm, they said.

The agency has also procured some documents from the relevant departments including customs to cross check the claims of other gutka companies whether they ever dealt with the Golden Box company.

Meanwhile, the second lie detector test of Joshi also failed to yield to anything for the CBI which later took the Goa Gutka owner for a "brain mapping" test at Ahmedabad.

Joshi was cleared in the first lie detector test by when he answered 13 of the 14 questions correctly, was understood to have repeated his performance in the second similar test, the sources said.