CHENNAI: Finding a strong case of collusion, corruption and connivance among politicians, officials and mining mafia in causing thousands of crores of rupees loss to the state exchequer in the excavation of beach sand minerals (BSM), the Madras High Court on Monday ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The court asked the CBI to investigate the entire process of granting of leases, transport permits, and inclusion of monazite, which has application in atomic energy generation, among minerals permitted for mining lease. The court also directed the agency to probe the “role of policy-making authorities” in conspiring with private mining firms, and directed that cost and royalty amount of Rs 5,832 crore be recovered from the companies for illegal mining.
A division bench of Justices SM Subramaniam and M Jothiraman pronounced the orders after hearing petitions, including the 2015 suo motu PIL on illegal mining of BSM in Thoothukudi, Kanniyakumari and Tirunelveli districts. The court also ordered investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax, Customs and Excise and the Commercial Tax departments into the transactions of the private companies involved in the illegal mining of BSM.
“It is undeniably established from the discussions above, right from the grant of mining lease — approval, granting of licence, transport permits, illegal inclusion of monazite in mining lease — to lack of efficient monitoring and questionable royalty settlement proceedings, to lack of initiation of action and complete shedding of accountability, there appears a scheme of collusion, corruption and connivance among political and executive authorities, and private mining lease holders,” it said.
CBI to probe all pending beach sand mining cases
“Hence, based on the reports and materials available, the CBI is directed to register criminal cases and launch investigation,” the bench ordered, adding that any related cases pending with the state police shall also be handed over to the CBI.
The court also directed the CBI director to constitute required number of special investigation teams with expertise and high integrity to hold the investigations. The key issues for the CBI to investigate are: The modus operandi of the illegal BSM mining mafia; the role of the officials responsible for the loss; corruption and connivance of officials with private companies; and role of officials in arbitrary royalty settlement to benefit illegal miners.
A multi-disciplinary investigation is also required to probe the crucial finding of high concentration of monazite in the processed stocks and whether monazite was exported by the mining company as it is matter of national security, the court said. The ‘illegal inclusion’ of monazite by the state government without prior sanction from the union government in the list of minerals leased out for mining has to be probed to cull out the political-executive-private miners nexus, the court ordered.
It upheld the reports and findings of IAS officers, Gagandeep Singh and Satyabrata Sahoo, and the court appointed amicus curiae V Suresh on the illegal mining of beach sand minerals in Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli and Kanniyakumari.
“The state is directed to recover the cost of minerals and royalty as per the findings in the amicus report relating to post ban period which held the 1.5 crore tonnes of BSMs found by Sahoo panel in 2018 and 1.40 crore tonnes of BSM stocks found by the revised report as illegally mined and processed.”