Madurai: The deputy director of the Department of Geology and Mining, Kanyakumari was on Sunday arrested for his alleged role in illegal mining operations carried out by granite major Olympus in Melur. The arrest of J Rajaram came hours after three Tamil Nadu Minerals Limited (TAMIN) officials were picked up on similar charges. Dhayanidhi Alagiri was a partner of Olympus Granites Private Limited till 2010.
“Though Rajaram is not a shareholder of Olympus Granites, he guided them in quarrying activities even after coming to know that they were violating government rules, while he was deputy director of the DGM, Madurai between 2006 and 2011,” a senior police officer said.
Rajaram was entrusted with powers to inspect and regulate quarrying operations of both the TAMIN and private firms. He also headed a high-level monitoring panel tasked with preventing the illegal quarrying. “But during his tenure as DGM in Madurai, he never exercised his powers to take action against the granite companies indulging in illegal quarrying. Instead, he knowingly acted in their interests,” the police official claimed.
On Saturday evening, TAMIN officials T Manoharan, Jawahar and Ragupathi were arrested for allegedly helping the granite company with their illegal operations. Other than Dhayanidhi, another shareholder of the firm, Nagarajan, a DMK functionary, was also said to be absconding.
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