Granite scam: Firm of Union Minister Alagiri's son raided

CHENNAI: As part of the ongoing probe into the multi-crore illegal granite quarrying scam in Madurai, police today raided the film production company of Union Minister M K Alagiri's son, Durai Dayanidhi, an accused in the case.

The police team from Madurai searched the premises of Dayanidhi's cinema company here for nearly an hour, sources said without elaborating.

Dayanidhi, for whom a special police team was on the lookout, and nine others are facing charges that companies owned by them mined sand and granite without permission.

Police had charged Dayanidhi and Nagarajan, partners in Olympus Granites Pvt Ltd, with encroaching on government land and taking away large quantity of granite illegally without quarrying in the permitted area.

Government cracked down on the firms after former Madurai Collector U Sahayam in a report, estimated the losses incurred from illegal granite mining at around Rs 16,000 crore.

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court had on September 25 rejected Dayanidhi's anticipatory bail plea in the case.