In a major embarrassment to DMK leader MK Alagiri, the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday attached properties worth Rs 40 crores, belonging to his son Alagiri Dhayanidhi, in an illegal granite mining case. In a press release, the ED said that it had initiated an investigation under Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) and attached properties of Olympus Granites P Limited, based on the charge sheet filed against the company and its shareholders S Nagarajan and Alagiri Dhayanidhi.

The investigating agency attached 25 movable and immovable properties consisting of lands, buildings in Madurai and Chennai and fixed deposits totalling Rs 40.34 crores of the company. The Tamil Nadu police had filed an FIR and charge sheet against the company, its promoters, directors and other individuals in November 2017 relating to the illegal mining case.

As per the charge sheet, the company shareholders, S Nagarajan and Alagiri Dhayanidhi, "criminally conspired and indulged in illegal mining activities and in the adjacent TAMIN leased land" and had caused wrongful loss to the government. Investigation revealed that Olympus Granites P Limited and its promoters, shareholders, directors "have committed a Scheduled Offence and derived proceeds of crime by indulging in the illegal quarrying," the ED said in the statement.

In the 5,191-page chargesheet, the cops had alleged that the company and its shareholders had caused a loss of Rs 257 crores to the State government. The multi-crore illegal granite mining scam came into the limelight in 2012 after the then Madurai Collector Thiru. U Sagayam had sent a detailed report to the government recommending through investigation.