CHENNAI: The Enforcement Directorate has sent a dossier to the Tamil Nadu DGP flagging collusion between government officials and excavator-owning private contractors in the alleged Rs 4,730 crore sand mining scam. The agency has also indicated that the state government failed to take adverse action against the illegal activity that allegedly caused a massive revenue loss to the government exchequer.
In the letter sent to DGP a few days ago under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) Act, the central agency, after their nine-month investigation, pegged the excessive illegally mined sand at 23.64 lakh units (66.21 lakh cubic metre) in the 2020-2023 period.
ED has detailed how contractors owning excavator machines illegally mined sand across vast areas adjacent to those leased out for mining by the Public Works Department (PWD). At four sand quarries, contractors mined sand 10-30 times more than the actual permitted quantity. In these four quarries, though the TN government had permitted mining only in an area of 4.9 hectares, mining was found to have been carried out across 105 hectares, which included areas adjacent to the approved sites. Violations were found in terms of depth of excavation as well.
The total lease area given to contractors was around 190 hectares across 28 sites in five districts, but the total area mined was estimated at 987 hectares, ED added in its letter. The agency arrived at this figure based on the technical report submitted by Terraqua UAV Solutions, a firm incubated under IIT-Kanpur, which was roped in to conduct a technical study to ascertain the extent of excessive mining in the sites. The firm used high-resolution satellite images to analyse before and after mining periods of sites, high-resolution images from drones, LIDAR data and bathymetric surveys, among other methods.
ED has also substantiated excess mining by analysing GPS coordinates of 273 excavator machines sold by M/s Kobelco and JCB to 16 customers in the state, which were used for sand mining. The geolocation data from these machines showed that multiple machines had dug out sand from a site at the same time, while TN government rules stipulate that only two should work on a single quarry at a time. The machines’ work hours, idling hours and amount of fuel consumed have also been analysed by ED as additional evidence.
In the letter, the agency has also given a list of four firms which have been awarded contracts for sand quarrying and its transportation to the depot.
‘Contractors amassed wealth in illegal sand mining, says ED
It has attached the names of customers who bought the excavator machines in Tamil Nadu from these two companies. Apart from causing a loss to government exchequer, the massive illegal sand mining has enabled contractors to amass huge illegitimate wealth, ED alleged.
The agency has already provisionally attached assets worth Rs 130 crore, including 209 sand excavators worth Rs 128.34 crore in this case. Deposits worth Rs 2.25 crore spread across 35 bank accounts belonging to Shanmugam Ramachandran, Karuppaiah Rethinam, Pannerselvam Karikalan and others allegedly involved in this have also been attached.
On April 25, collectors of five districts – Ariyalur, Karur, Thanjavur, Tiruchy and Vellore – appeared before the ED after they all were summoned for questioning.
