The High Court-appointed Legal Commissioner, U. Sagayam, and his aides changed their rooms in the Circuit House on Friday on receiving an “alert message” warning them of the possibility of the rooms being bugged.
Mr. Sagayam and two senior scientists of Science City, Chennai, who were staying in three rooms on the first floor of the old building, changed to the rooms on the ground floor.
An official source said that following the message received on Thursday night, the officials searched the three rooms. “There were some unusual signals in the two rooms where the scientists were staying. However, the officials could not find any bugging device,” the source said.
Later, the chamber of the Sagayam committee on the first floor at the Old Ramanathapuram Collectorate building was also searched.
This comes after a social worker filed a complaint that the relatives and agents of an accused in the granite scam were roaming around Mr. Sagayam’s office on Thursday.
After receiving 71 petitions on Thursday, the panel on Friday received 38 petitions, including some by post. The committee is planning to direct the Village Administrative Officers of areas where illegal mining was allegedly rampant to create awareness of the functioning of the committee. The officials said the VAOs would be asked to “tom-tom” about the functioning of the office.
Mr. Sagayam will leave for Chennai to attend a meeting in his capacity as Vice-Chairman of Science City. He will return to Madurai on Wednesday or Thursday.
