Five District Collectors appear before ED investigators in case linked to illegal sand mining

CHENNAI: Five district collectors appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials on Thursday in connection with the inquiry into the money laundering case linked to the illegal sand mining in the state especially on the Cauvery River basin. 

District collectors from Tiruchy, Thanjavur, Vellore, Karur and Ariyalur appeared before the ED officials.

The IAS officers – Deepak Jacob, collector of Thanjavur, M Thangavel, collector, Karur, J Anne Mary Swaran, collector of Ariyalur, M Pradeep Kumar, collector of Tiruchi and VR Subbulakhmi, collector of Vellore - who were initially went to the ED office in Sastry Bhavan in Haddows Road in the morning were asked to go to the ED office located on Kush Kumar Road in Nungambakkam where they met the ED team post lunch.

The collectors were allowed to go home after 8 pm.

The collectors were forced to appear before the ED team after that the Supreme Court had in February 28, this year directed the to appear before the ED in connection with the ongoing money laundering probe carried out by the agency.

The Supreme Court bench had stayed the Madras High Court order, granting relief to the five district collectors.

The state government and five district collectors moved the Madras High Court that stayed the ED summons, asking the collectors to appear before it.

ED had earlier informed Madras High Court that the total value of illegal excess sand mining done from the five districts in one or two years was around Rs 4,760 crore while the revenue shown officially was Rs 36.45 crore.

The ED teams had conducted raids at multiple locations during September last year, including sand mining areas and sand stockyards.