The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally connected property price Rs 130.60 crore in reference to an unlawful sand mining case in Tamil Nadu.
The property, which embody movable property price Rs.128.34 crore, additionally encompass 209 sand excavators.
Moreover, a sum of Rs. 2.25 crore, deposited in 35 financial institution accounts, belonging to individuals concerned in illegal sand mining actions within the state had been additionally connected by the ED below the provisions of the Prevention of Cash Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The accused have been recognized as Shanmugam Ramachandran, Karuppaiah Rethinam and Pannerselvam Karikalan.
The ED initiated an investigation below the PMLA primarily based on numerous FIRs registered throughout Tamil Nadu over widespread unauthorised sand mining alongside the riverbeds and basins of the state.
Following an investigation, it was revealed that Shanmugam Ramachandran, Karuppaiah Rethinam, and Pannerselvam Karikalan, together with their associates, had fashioned a syndicate and established a community of firms and corporations, both below their names or within the names of their family and associates. These entities had been discovered to be engaged in illicit sand mining actions within the state.
The ED examined all sand quarries in Tamil Nadu to find out the standing of mining websites and the skilled group’s report highlighted cases of extreme and unlawful sand mining, greater than the recorded quantity documented within the state authorities’s information.
Evaluation of geofencing reviews submitted by the producers and suppliers of the excavators utilised in sand mining revealed that the excavators had been predominantly deployed past the permitted quarry space.
Earlier, the ED had carried out searches at 17 places throughout Chennai, Tiruchy, and Puddukottai. Money amounting to Rs 2.33 crore, gold jewelry valued at Rs 56.86 lakh, and different incriminating proof had been seized. A complete of 30 financial institution accounts, with Rs 13 crore, had been additionally frozen by the probe company.
