CHENNAI/PUDUKKOTTAI/DINDIGUL : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday conducted searches on the premises of sand mining baron Shekar Reddy’s partners K Rathinam and S Ramachandran in Dindigul and Pudukottai respectively.
The raids were conducted in the wake of arrests of Rathinam and Ramachandran, who were partners in SRS Mining. They are reportedly linked to ‘influential persons’ in the State, including politicians and bureaucrats.
The investigating agency on Thursday arrested them in connection with the seizure of `34 crore worth new currencies during income tax raids in several places of the State. Income Tax department has been interrogating Ramachandran and Rathinam about the modus operandi of sand stackyards in the state.
It is alleged that the entire sand mining operations in the State was controlled by the trio. The modus operandi of the trio was to buy sand at concessional rates from government mines and do a second sales at stackyard without any receipts, thus avoiding VAT and other taxes.
Income-tax sleuths on Saturday conducted raids on the properties of S Ramachandran, a sand-miner and a close associate of Shekar Reddy arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) recently, in connection with seizure of `34 crore worth of new currencies.
In Pudukkottai, the residence and the office of Ramachandran were searched by the sleuths. However, there was no official word on the document or valuable seized.
Similarly, K Rathinam’s residence and real estate office in Dindigul were searched by the sleuths for the better part of the day.
Highly-placed sources said a three-member team from the I-T department swooped down on Rathinam’s house on GTN Road and his real estate office nearby an hour or so after the break of dawn. The raids, which were carried out all through the day, came to an end at 5 pm. Though the I-T officials questioned Rathinam’s family members, including his wife Selvi, they were tight-lipped about the seizures made, if any.