Madras HC rejects anticipatory bail plea of MK Alagiri's son

Chennai, Sept 25: The anticipatory bail plea of Durai Dayanidhi, son of Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister

, was rejected by the

bench of the

today.

Durai Dayanidhi is one of the main accused in the Rs 16,000 crore granite quarrying scam. The Tamil Nadu Police have been on the lookout for him and nine other accused whose companies illegally mined granite worth thousands of crores.

Durai Dayanidhi, a stakeholder in Olympus Granites Pvt Ltd, and his business partner S Nagarajan had prayed for relief but Justice Mathivanan made it clear that both of them are not entitled to bail at this stage.

The scam was unearthed by U Sahayam, former District Collector of Madurai, who found that illegal granite mining had caused a loss of nearly Rs 16,000 crore to the state exchequer.

Olympus Granites and other private companies allegedly set up their operations close to government mines and then quarried on the government land. The companies later brought back the illegally mined blocks of granites to their own stockyards.

After this modus operandi was exposed by Sahayam, Department of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) sleuths booked two of his predecessors namely N Mathivanan and C Kamaraj on Sept 15 for colluding with the owners of granite companies.

"Mathivanan knowingly submitted a blatantly false report to the authorities stating that there was no irregularity or illegal quarrying done by PRP Exports (the company's owner PR Palanichamy has been arrested in the case)," DVAC said.

The sleuths added that Kamaraj had "knowingly and willfully suppressed" material facts in the reports filed by his subordinates about "symptoms" of illegal mining.

Today, the High Court was informed that immigration authorities and airports across the nation have already been alerted in order to prevent Durai Dayanidhi from fleeing to other countries.

Three Tamil Nadu Minerals Limited officials had told the police that Durai Dayanidhi had entered into a conspiracy with them for mining granite without permission, the investigating officer (IO) said.

Pointing out that the accused has considerable political influence, the IO argued that Durai Dayanidhi might intimidate witnesses on being granted relief and this would affect the investigations in the case.

The investigating officer stressed that custodial interrogation of Durai Dayanidhi was necessary to further unravel the multi-crore granite scam.

OneIndia News