The district administration and the police have made their intent clear on the granite scam with the police seizing machinery at the granite polishing unit of PRP Granites and PRP Exports at Therkkutheru.
The seizure on Friday comes at a time when the granite baron was gearing up to resume operations of the factory after more than two years. The police had seized a lot of polished granite slabs at the unit.
Superintendent of Police Vijayendra Bidari said that the seizure of select machinery were part of the on-going investigation into illegal granite mining. The machinery was proof for the illegally-mined granite stones having been processed at this factory, he said.
“Besides, during the course of the investigation, we found that the machinery was bought from sale proceeds of the illegally-mined granite stones,” he said.
One of the Investigation Officers, who presented the new evidence in the Judicial Magistrate court, pasted the seizure order on the machinery — gang saw and wire saw — at the factory. Consequently, the resumption of granite processing on the huge premises has been stopped for now. The granite quarry operator received High Court approval to resume work in quarries outside Madurai district.
The district police have so far registered 90 criminal cases in the granite scam, including for land grabbing, cheating, theft and provisions of Explosives Substances Act, and Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act, 1992.
Among them, 56 cases have been slapped against P.R. Palanichamy-owned granite companies.
There was proof that granite stones were processed there, writes S. Sundar
