Early this week, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a petition in the Madras High Court in the illegal sand mining case. The petition ran to 21 pages, and out of those 21 pages, the most important pages are the last three related to the sand quarries and the surveys conducted at the sand quarries with the help of IIT Kanpur and ISRO. The ED alleged that illegal sand mining worth more than ₹4370 crore has occurred. The last three pages are the most critical parts of the petition, containing all these details.
When the ED finished their raids and issued summons to the Water Resources department officials. Following this, the officials from the department appeared before the ED, and the investigation began. One of the officials gave a statement of the entire wrongdoing that happened.
A few points from these three pages are noteworthy in the petition filed by the ED. First, it is mentioned in the statement that sand was mined beyond the sanctioned 4.5 acres.
Secondly, the mining was done beyond the permitted depth in the sand quarry. It was also said that no inspection was done to check whether theft was taking place, whether the account books were being maintained properly, whether the transactions were taking place legally, or if any malpractices were taking place. But there is malpractice going on, and it is a known fact.
Coming to the government’s bill book. It has also been found that all transactions took place outside the bill book. Now, how this happens is
In order to collect the sand, there has to be a lorry in the first place and the signature of the lorry driver, as well as the designated officer’s signature. After the signatures are obtained, the lorry can enter the quarry. But this does not happen; they are creating fake records to mine sand illegally. So, the ED alleges that all this is happening outside government records. This is the second point mentioned in ED’s petition.
The 3rd point mentioned by the ED in the petition is:
The officer gave his statements over ten days, from 3 October 2023 to 13 October 2023. However, all of a sudden, he goes missing on 14 October 2023 along with his family. The ED landed at his home, but no one was found to be there. Even his phone is switched off. The ED, unable to locate him, sent the summons via email.
The 4th point mentioned is that after receiving the summons by email, the officer appears before the ED. He stated that the Water Resources Department, Addnl Chief Secretary Sandeep Saxena, an IAS Officer, called up this officer and asked him to stop giving the statements and go into hiding.
The 5th point says that another executive engineer called the said officer and conveyed the information that Sandeep Saxena and Duraimurugan, the minister for water resources, do not wish that you stay in Chennai and asked him to go in hiding with his family for some days and also asked him to switch off his mobile phone. This is also given as a statement as submitted by ED.
The 6th statement says that Umapathi, Duraimurugan’s PA, calls up this officer and also asks him to go into hiding with his family and switch off his phone; altogether it looks like the higher-ups had pressurized the officer to go missing on 14 October 2023.
The ED also stated that as far as the illegal sand mining case is concerned, they cannot conclude that it is only the officials of the Water Resources Dept who have committed the wrongdoing because the District Collector is also responsible for that particular district where the illegalities occurred. The police of that district are also responsible for preventing such illegal activities. The responsibilities also lie with the Forest Department and the Mineral Resources Department, the most important being the SP (police dept) and the Collector. The one who prevented all these officials from taking any action against the illegal mining was the department, and no action was taken on the wrongdoers because of the department (minister), alleged the ED.
Political activist Maridhas has alleged that the points placed by the ED before the High Court only reveals that the DMK government headed by MK Stalin is protecting the people involved in the illegal sand mining.
The ED also stated that they are not eligible or do not have the power to take action against these criminal activities. But the money earned from this illegal sand mining could have been laundered, and they were keen on investigating that aspect of the case.
Notably, an FIR has yet to be filed against the mafia behind the illegal sand mining. Even if there are a few, it would only lead to small-timers who come on bullock carts and collect sand.
The case should have ideally been filed on Pudukottai Ramachandran, Dindigul Rathinam, or Karikalan, who are alleged to be the top people behind the illegal sand mining. Since there is no FIR on these people, it becomes difficult for the ED to take any action or investigate the said people.
The Madras High Court on 28 November 2023 stayed the ED’s summons to collectors in this case, however it stated that the investigations can be carried on.
Amidst this, an executive engineer in the Water Resources Department, R Devarajan, who was under suspension was dismissed from his post on 28 November 2023. In a video he posted on social media, Devarajan said that DMK Minister Duraimurugan, Additional Chief Secretary Sandeep Saxena, and Chief Engineer Muthaiya were involved in the ₹4700 crore scam case.
Prior to that, Gudiyatham Kumaran, who was recently ousted from the DMK, leveled accusations against senior DMK Minister Duraimurugan and his MP son Kathir Anand saying that they had looted ₹60,000 crores through sand mining.
(With inputs from Maridhas)
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