Madurai: The Madras High Court on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Union Minister M K Alagiri’s son, Durai Dayanidhi, in the multi-crore illegal granite quarrying case. Dayanidhi, for whom a special police team was on the lookout, and nine others are facing charges that companies owned by them mined sand and granite without permission.
Justice Mathivanan of the Madurai bench of the court also rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Dayanidhi’s business partner S Nagarajan as also the bail application of Deputy Director of Mines Department Shanmugavel, already arrested in the case.
The court rejected anticipatory bail pleas of a granite company owner and his son in the alleged scam while granting relief to the owner’s wife.
Government cracked down on the firms after former Madurai Collector U Sahayam in a report, estimated the losses incurred from illegal granite mining at around Rs 16,000 crore.
On September 15, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption officials booked two IAS officers–former Madurai District Collectors N Mathivanan and C Kamaraj–for alleged corruption in the case and conducted raids across 34 places in the state. Police had alerted immigration authorities to help them in preventing Dayanidhi and other accused from leaving the country. The companies’ accounts had already been frozen.
The investigating officer told the court that three Tamil Nadu Minerals Limited officials, who had already been arrested, had stated that Dayanidhi and other accused had conspired with them for mining granite blocks illegally.
Only through custodial interrogation of the petitioner, could the role of officials who had assisted him be found. Examination of 25 witnesses clearly revealed the conspiracy, encroachment and violation of conditions, among others, the officer said. Submitting that Dayanidhi is a politically influential person, the IO said if the anticipatory bail was granted, there was every possibility his intimidating the witnesses which would affect investigation.
Police had registered 26 cases against the petitioners.
On a complaint from the local village administrative officer, police had charged Dayanidhi and Nagarajan, partners in Olympus Granites Pvt Ltd, with encroaching on the adjacent government land and taking away large quantity of granite illegally without quarrying in the permitted area.
Cases had been registered under various IPC sections including 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), 447 (criminal trespass) and 420 (cheating). (PTI)