HC to decide on granite scam probe on receipt of govt report

The Madras High Court today said it will take a decision on entrustingfurtherinvestigation in the multi-crore illegal granite quarrying scam to CBI or CB-CID or to maintain the current probe, on receipt of a composite report from the state government.
When the matter came up before the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan, Advocate General of Tamil Nadu AL Somayaji submitted that some more departments have to file their response in connection with the report submitted by the senior IAS officer U Sagayam appointed as the Legal Commissioner by the court to look into the allegations of illegal mining.

He submitted that he will provide a composite picture, keeping in mind the stand of various departments.
Counsel for the Enforcement Directorate, Government of India, also stated that they were looking into the issue and will file a status report on the same.
Assistant Solicitor General Su. Sreenivasan, who appeared on behalf of the Centre, assured that he will ensure that the counsel for CBI is present on the next date.
Recording all the submissions, the bench said it will take a decision on entrustingfurtherprobe in the multi-crore scam, to CBI or CB-CID or to maintain the current investigation on receipt of the composite report and posted the matter for further hearing on July 28.

The court had on February 15 directed the Tamil Nadu government to furnish the details regarding the steps taken on the report submitted by Sagayam who in his report had said the actual loss to the government exchequer was more than Rs 1,11,000 crore due to illegal mining in Madurai district.
The court had appointed Sagayam as the Legal Commissioner to look into allegations of illegal mining on a PIL filed by social activist "Traffic" Ramaswamy.