ED attaches `200cr assets of granite firms

The Enforcement Directorate has attached 517 properties of two granite companies in Madurai worth `98 crore and a market value of about `200 crore. The move by ED is connection with its money laundering probe in the alleged illegal granite quarrying scam of Madurai.

“As these immovable properties are involved in money laundering, ED attached them provisionally under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),” the central probe agency said in a statement.

The case pertains to 2013 when the Madurai district Police registered five FIRs against Ms Madurai Granite Exports, Ms M.R.

According to ED, charge sheets were filed by the state police alleging illegal quarrying of multi-coloured granites at Melur, Keelavalavu, Rasipuram and other places in and around Madurai district by the accused

Granites, Ms R.R. Granites and their proprietors and partners.

According to ED, charge sheets were filed by the state police alleging illegal quarrying of multicoloured granites at Melur, Keelavalavu, Rasipuram and other places in and around Madurai district by the accused, with a common object to trespass into the nearby areas of government’s Poramboke land, by allegedly removing boundary stones erected by the revenue department.

It was further alleged that deadly explosive substances were used for carrying out illegal mining works which is an offence under the Explosive Substances Act, 1908. They had also allegedly misappropriated the multi-coloured granite blocks in an illegal manner during the period between 2001 and 2012, the agency said.

It was estimated that the loss to the Government exchequer and the consequent illegal gain to the accused there in was about `450 crores in this case, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement. Further investigations are in progress.