ED inspects quarry sites across Tamil Nadu, begins probe into illegal sand mining 

ED visits sand quarry sites in TN to assess quantum of sand mined, seize incriminating documents, CCTV footage, and other data storage devices. Sand lorry owners’ associations claim acute shortage of river sand due to reduced online sales. They appeal to TN govt to open all quarries and commence full-fledged online sales.

Officials of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) on Sunday visited sand quarry sites across Tamil Nadu to measure the sand available at stockyards and assess the quantum of sand mined in recent times.

According to police sources, investigators, assisted by engineers of the Water Resources Department, visited the stockyards and sand quarries as part of the investigation into allegations that a large quantity of sand was excavated from riverbeds and sold illegally bypassing the online sales mechanism thereby causing a huge loss to the State exchequer. 

The central agency conducted searches on September 12, 2023, at all sand stockyards or depots and claimed to have seized incriminating documents pointing to irregularities in the sale of sand, including fake receipts and counterfeit QR codes. They also seized CCTV footage and other data storage devices resulting in sand sales coming to a grinding halt in the State for about a week. Amidst suspicion of large-scale evasion of GST, the ED is probing a money laundering offence in the sand mining business.

The sources said responding to a request made by the ED seeking assistance of the WRD engineers for physical inspection and aerial mapping to assess the quantum of excess sand mined, the WRD Engineer- in-Chief and Chief Engineer General on Saturday informed that Executive Engineers, Assistant Executive Engineers and Assistant Engineers in all the sand mining sites would extend their “best and full cooperation” to the officials in getting permission and logistic support. 

Meanwhile, sand lorry owners’ associations claimed that there was an acute shortage of river sand in the market as the quantity of sand made available through online mode had come down drastically. Tamil Nadu Sand Lorries Owners’ Protection Association president K. Rajasekar alleged that the cost of five units of river sand had increased from ₹25,000 to ₹45,000 (in the black market) due to the increasing demand. 

“Before the ED raid, a few hundreds of lorries entered the sand stockyards to purchase sand through online/offline mode. Since the sales are strictly through online mode now, there are hardly 10-15 lorries taking sand from stockyards per day. This has resulted in an acute shortage of sand in the market which is affecting construction activities,” Mr. Rajasekar said.

The Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners Federation president Sella Rajamani appealed to the State government to open all the sand quarries and commence full fledged sale of sand through online mode. Since the quantity of sand being sold at WRD managed stockyards had come down drastically, there was information of sand being stolen from riverbeds in the night.