Government was keen to protect the nation's wealth and punish those who were responsible for illegal quarrying, Advocate General Naveenthakrishnan submitted before the the Madurai Bench, opposing plea for CBI probe and high-level committee led by a retired high court judge to investigate the issue.
The District collector had formed 18 teams to detect seven types of violations including quarrying beyond permitted area, the Advocate General told a Division Bench.
The inspection began on August 2,2012 and now out of 175 quarries, 166 quarries had been inspected. In 76 quarries, there had been violations such as encroachments on government land.
Twelve cases had been registered against the quarrying companies under various IPC sections, Mines and Minerals Development and Regulation Act and Tamil Nadu Prevention of Public Property Damages Act, and 23 persons had been arrested.
When justices P P S Janardhana Raja and M Duraiswamy asked if the accounts of the companies had been frozen and passports impounded, the Advocate General said that action had been initiated in that direction.
Collector Anshul Mishra said quarry licence holders tried to destroyevidence of quarrying by filling waste materials into pits. These cases were being examined in detail and reports were awaited.
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The Petitioner, V Anbalagan, said the quantum of fraud ran to several thousand crores of rupees and only CBI could find out the details.
K.K.Ramesh, another petitioner, sought a high level probe by a retired judge into the illegal quarrying.
The case had been posted for hearing on August 22.
Meanwhile, Justice Mathivanan posted the anticipatory bail petitions filed by P.R.Palanisamy, a partner in the P R P Granites Exports firm, which was sealed recently, and others to August 23 for hearing.