HYDERABAD : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths on Thursday carried out searches at the residences of Patancheru MLA Gudem Mahipal Reddy and his brother Gudem Madhushudan Reddy and other eight locations in connection with illegal mining at Lakudaram village in Sangareddy district.
Sources said the sleuths seized Rs 20 lakh in cash and land documents from Madhushudan’s residence. They added that the searches were carried out as there were allegations of violation of environmental norms and causing a loss of hundreds of crores by mining beyond the approved limit.
An illegal mining case was registered against Madhusudan in March, which stated that his company, Santosh Granites, was given a licence to mine in 4.24 hectares of land in survey No: 738 of Lakudaram village in Patancheru mandal. The firm mined 72.87 lakh metric tonnes of material but paid only `8.48 lakh. The Mining department took cognisance of the issue and conducted an inquiry, after which a penalty of Rs 341.28 crore was imposed.
Madhusudhan was subsequently arrested in March, but was later released on bail. It is believed that the searches at Santosh Granites were carried out based on the information received from the mining authorities.
‘Centre, state targeting opposition legislators’
Meanwhile. MLA Mahipal Reddy alleged that the Union government as well as the state government were targeting opposition MLAs and their families with the help of central agencies such as ED and CBI. He said that the ED seized nothing from his residence even after 11 hours of searches.