Two former collectors of Madurai district were in the dock today after Vigilance officials booked them for alleged corruption relating to the multi-crore rupees illegal granite quarrying case in that district.
N. Mathivanan and C. Kamaraj were booked by the sleuths of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption, who also conducted raids across 34 places in the state including in Chennai, Madurai, Salem, Tiruchi, Coimbatore and Kanykumari districts.
Mathivananan, Director of Department of Sugar, was booked under various sections of IPC including criminal conspiracy, besides under the Prevention of Corruption Act for submitting a “blatantly false report” that there was no irregularity in mining granite.
“Mathivanan knowingly submitted a blatantly false report to the authorities stating that there was no irregularity or illegal quarrying done by PRP Exports (whose proprietor P.R. Palanichamy is in police net),” a DVAC release here said.
This was done with “malafide intention” of favouring PRP concerns “thereby causing wrongful loss to the Government worth several crores of rupees and wrongful gain to PRP concerns,” it said.
Kamaraj, now the Managing Director Tamil Nadu Salt Corporation, “knowingly and wilfully suppressed” material facts in the reports given by his other subordinates about “symptoms” of illegal mining, it said.
Kamaraj “sent a blatantly false report to the Government stating that there was no encroachment or illegal quarrying in the tanks. This was done with an intent to favour the illegal quarry operators, and thereby caused wrongful loss to the Government worth several crores of rupees,” the vigilance officials alleged.
Cases were filed against scores of government officials including Rajaram, Deputy Director, Mines, Nagercoil, who held a similar post at Madurai earlier, V. Subbu, Special Collector, Sivagangai, and various others currently posted in different parts of the state but who had been earlier working in Madurai.
Former Collector of Madurai U. Sahayam had in a report to the State Government recently, estimated the losses incurred from illegal granite mining at around Rs 16,000 crore. Son of Union Minister M.K. Alagiri, Durai Dayanithi, is one of the accused in the case. He has moved the court seeking anticipatory bail.