One of the first complainants on illegal granite scam, S. Murugesan from Melur, on Tuesday submitted several files, which he claimed were records, to prove that granite exporters had given false information on the quantity of minerals exported, to Legal Commissioner U. Sagayam.
The 62-year-old man, on being summoned, appeared before Mr. Sagayam and gave his deposition on the scam. Mr. Murugesan said he approached the Department of Mines on the illegal granite quarrying in 2008. When there was no response from the officials, his suspicion on quarrying got strengthened, he said.
He got several documents from Customs and Central Excise through the Right to Information Act, which revealed huge difference in the quantity of granite exported and the actual quantity of granite quarried, he claimed. “Even the website of one of the popular granite exporters claimed that it was exporting 1 lakh cubic metres every month, while its official records contradicted it,” he said. Stating that since the documents pertained to Central government agencies such as Central Excise and Customs, it would be apt if the Sagayam committee recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the illegal mining case to bring out the truth, he said.
After Mr. Murugesan sent a series of petitions on the scam, the then Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government appointed an IAS officer as Collector in 2009, who made a false statement that there were no irregularities in mining activities in the district, he said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Murugesan, along with a few others who raised the granite scam, was arrested on foisted cases.
