ED crackdown on sandmining: Rs 12.82 cr frozen; Rs 2.33 cash, 1 kg gold seized

CHENNAI: In a follow up to the searches by Enforcement Directorate officials at 34 locations across the state including eight sand mining yards and mining contractors on September 12 (Tuesday) the ED authorities had seized Rs 2.33 crore in unaccounted cash and over 1 kg gold worth Rs 56 lakh. Apart from taking hold of incriminating documents, officials have also frozen Rs 12.82 crore in several bank accounts.

ED searches were spread across six districts in the state at residential and business premises of various persons including S. Ramachandran, a government quarry contractor, K. Rathinam, Karikalan and their accomplices, Auditor P. Shanmugaraj and officials of Water Resources Department (WRD), Government of Tamil Nadu.

The simultaneous raids held on September 12 in Chennai, Vellore, Dindigul, Tiruchi, Karur and Pudukkottai was targetted at sales depots, offices and residences of sand mining contractors.

The allegations were that while sand was officially sold online with an e-receipt provided at the mining depots, there were significant offline sales that weren't consistently recorded. The searches, during which several incriminating documents were seized, were to ascertain whether tax was credited to government accounts from the e-bills issued to thousands of lorry owners/operators, ED sources had said.

The raids were held with the deployment of Armed Central para-military force personnel in all the locations. S Ramachandran, from Muthupattinam in Pudukkottai, has been involved in a series of government contracts including stone and sand quarries in many districts.

In Chennai, searches were carried out WRD engineer Pothipani Thilagam and office of the superintendent engineer of WRD in Ezhilaga and the house of another engineer Muthaiah in Alandur.