Important documents, cash seized from different places
Special teams of the Madurai district police on Monday conducted searches on the premises of granite businessman P.R. Palanichamy at Anna Nagar here and in buildings in suburban pockets belonging to his associates and relatives.
The operation, which began at 5 a.m., was led by Superintendent of Police V. Balakrishnan.
According to the police, criminal cases registered against granite operators during the last one week in different police stations in Madurai district have been taken over by the District Crime Branch police with effect from Monday.
The police said that preliminary inquiries suggested there were crucial documents in different places. The searches carried out by about 20 teams were videographed.
From one house, the police seized land documents registered in different sub-registrar offices, Mr. Balakrishnan said, adding that over Rs. 15 lakh in cash was seized from at least two places.
A team found used cartridges from the residence of a person. Though inquiries suggested that the person had a licence, they were examining the reasons for the use of the cartridges, said another police officer.
As a sequel to the probe, C.A. Shanmugavelu, retired Assistant Director (Mines and Minerals, Government of Tamil Nadu), who is working for PRP Granite Company, was arrested on criminal charges.
Keywords: Granite scam, Madurai police
The owner was doing a great job providing not only employment but excellent benefits to the employees. I knew the company being a supplier and they did excellent documentation. It is unfortunate that this has happened and pretty sure that there are several big sharks behind this scam. Now everyone blames one single person but pretty sure that all the thousands of crores cannot be enjoyed by this single person.
Whatever maybe the case, government can never run a company like PRP exports efficiently the way it was run by Palanichamy. Madurai has lost a good business opportunity and several thousand people have now lost their livelihood. Sagayam did his duty but then what were the other collectors / government officials doing for the past fisteen years?
It is strange whether it Emu farm or granite case or finance company the owners escape abruptly and the police form parties to trace them while these alleged culprits apply for anticipatory bail. Well staged drama happens in Tamil Nadu. The moment a case comes to notice why can't the police arrest the alleged culprit immediately.Even in case of murder the police simply allow the so called VIPs to escape so that they can apply for anticipatory bail in courts. Even God cannot change the present situation in India.
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