Anbumani flays govt for illegal sand mining

Chennai: PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss criticized TN govt for refusing to register and investigate an illegal sand mining case exposed by Enforcement Directorate (ED), which allegedly cost the exchequer around 4,730 crore. In a statement on Saturday, Anbumani condemned DMK's response in Madras high court, where state officials declined ED's request for a probe, "despite substantial evidence of rampant sand mining, money laundering, and widespread collusion between contractors, politicians, and bureaucrats". He said the refusal "confirms govt's fear of top leaders being implicated in the scam."

According to investigations and court documents, illegal river sand mining accelerated from 2020 to 2023, with contractors deploying banned heavy machinery and extracting nearly 23.7 lakh units of sand more than 130 times the official figure submitted by state govt, he said. The ED dossier reportedly found proceeds from these operations were systematically laundered, with GPS evidence and witness testimonies linking senior officials to the scam

.tnn