The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached 25 movable and immovable properties worth ₹40.34 crore, belonging to Olympus Granites Pvt. Ltd. and others, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in an illegal granite mining case. Former Union Minister M.K. Alagiri’s son Dhayanidhi Alagiri is a director in the company. The attached properties include land, fixed deposits and buildings in Madurai and Chennai.
According to the ED, investigations were initiated under PMLA against Olympus Granites to identify the crime proceeds on the basis of an FIR and chargesheet filed by the police against the company, its promoters, directors and others. The chargesheet disclosed commission of various offences under the IPC and the Explosive Substances Act by the accused, consequent to the illegal mining of granite indulged in by the company and other accused.
The company, its shareholders, promoters and directors including S. Nagarajan and Dhayanidhi Alagiri, along with others, criminally conspired and indulged in illegal mining activities in the adjacent Tamil Nadu Minerals Ltd. leased land, causing wrongful loss to the government and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves, the ED said.
The accused “have committed a scheduled offence and derived proceeds of crime by indulging in illegal quarrying and the trade proceeds of the company derived therefrom were further relentlessly incubated, thereby resulting in further accruals of proceeds of crime, all of which were camouflaged in the organizational system as business income/earnings, although gained out of the said illegal activity”, the agency said.