Chennai: Probing the illegal granite mining in Tamil Nadu, the Enforcement Directorate on Friday attached assets worth Rs 43 crore of two granite firms under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).
The ED said the two firms — M.S. Granites and Sri Aiswariya Rock Export— run by Sankaranarayanan and P.K.M. Selvam had entered into a criminal conspiracy to illegally quarry multicolour granite stones from non-leasehold lands.
Investigations by the ED revealed that the owners of the two firms forged and fabricated documents for transporting illegally acquired granite blocks to cheat the statutory authorities and to camouflage illegally earned income.
“The agency had similarly attached assets worth Rs 528 crore in the same case a few days back. It booked a criminal case of money laundering in the latest case against two people and their firms after taking cognisance of three police FIRs,” a statement from the ED said.
The investigations had also found that they had resorted to illegal quarrying from the government Poromboke lands by removing the boundary stones erected by the Revenue department.
The agency added that the investigation conducted by it so far “revealed the said firms are selling the illegally mined granite blocks in the international/domestic market in excess of the declared quantity and realised the sale proceeds.
Investigations revealed that proceeds of crime were invested in 31 immovable properties having a market value of over Rs 43 crores and in 37 fixed deposits to the tune of Rs 1.52 crores, the ED said. The granite scam came to the fore after the then District Collector U. Sagayam in a report in May 2012 pegged the loss to the exchequer due to illegal granite quarrying in the district at about Rs 16,000 crore.
