Ex-mining department official held, raids on

In the first big catch in the ongoing investigations into the multi-crore granite mining scam in the southern region, Madurai police on Monday arrested a retired Assistant Director of State-owned Tamil Nadu Mining Department.

Accused A Shanmugavelu (63) of K K Nagar, who took up an assignment with granite major PRP Exports post-retirement, had allegedly shown the company the loopholes in the system governing mining licences and how to exploit it.

In a related development, police arrested two others, including Balasubramaniam, a partner of Olympus Granites Private Limited, in which Union Chemicals Minister M K Alagiri’s son Dhayanidhi Alagiri held stakes until two years ago. Incidentally, Dhayanidhi is presently in China and police have posted intelligence sleuths near his house to gather details about his likely arrival.

Police and officials from multiple Government agencies simultaneously carried out raids at around 25 places here to gather information about illegal mining and encroachment on Mining Department-owned mines and Government land.

A police officer said, “After retiring, Shanmugavelu had joined PRP Exports as senior manager. Since he was well-versed with the functioning of the Mining Department, we have reasons to suspect that he was the one who had informed the mining company about ways and means to exploit the loopholes in the system.”  Shanmugavelu is likely to be taken into custody for interrogation.

Another employee of PRP Exports, Loganathan, who has a strong knowledge of exim policies and the functioning of the Customs and Excise Departments, was also arrested. A hunt is on for one Dhanapal, believed to be a partner in Olympus Granites. On Monday, raids were carried out on the premises of those involved in the operations of the PRP, PKP, Sindhu, Olympus, Madura, VKS, PS, Ibrahim Sait and Gopalakrishnan granite companies.

AG Opposes Bail Pleas

Advocate General (AG) A Navaneethakrishnan vehemently opposed the anticipatory bail pleas of granite company owners, including P R  Palanichamy of PRP Exports and P K Selvaraj of Sindhu granites, when the matter was taken up by the High Court on Monday.

All cases pertaining to the bail pleas have been posted to August 17.