The ED raids the office of a Telangana minister in connection with a granite mining case

As part of an investigation into the alleged illegal mining of granite, the Enforcement Directorate raided premises associated with TRS leader and Telangana minister Gangula Kamalakar on Wednesday. Forex violations have been reported to the ED in this matter.

ED sources suspect that Kamalakar’s companies have been mining granite illegally in Karimnagar, Telangana, and exporting the stone without paying royalties to the government for several years.

Kamalakar’s residence and Shwetha Granite Export Pvt Limited and Aravinda Vyas Granites Pvt Ltd, two companies, believed to be associated with him, were raided, according to sources. In the raids, Kamalakar is believed to have been in Dubai.

As a result of the raids, the ED recovered cash worth Rs 49 lakh and documents showing Rs 49 crore in deposits in 900 accounts in cooperative banks, according to ED sources. Even though exports were being made, no money was being remitted back as remittances. Approximately Rs 125 crore in royalties has been lost to the state exchequer due to exports worth over Rs 600 crore being made illegally. The vigilance wing of the mining department had earlier made an inquiry in this matter but did not register an FIR,” an ED official said.

According to sources, the searches revealed that money was being transferred through Benami companies, which have been investigated.

In 2013, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, the Telangana BJP president and Karimnagar MP accused TRS leaders of collaborating with illegal granite traders.

The granite mining companies are showing zero business, despite mining and are causing the government to lose revenue, Kumar claimed in a press conference in August 2019.

In technical terms, this is the first big case that the ED has filed against a TRS leader. The agency attached assets worth approximately Rs 96 crore allegedly belonging to TRS MP Nama Nageswara Rao as part of its investigation into the affairs of his company, Madhucon Group, in July. In this case, however, the study had begun while Rao was a member of the TDP. An alleged bank fraud of more than Rs 1,000 crore is the subject of this case. In August, a betting racket was busted in Hyderabad, where money was allegedly transferred to Nepal through hawala transactions. In this case, some TRS legislators are under investigation.

In Hyderabad, the Telangana government has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to investigate allegations that three people with links to the BJP attempted to bribe four TRS legislators to overthrow Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s government. In the early hours of October 26, Cyberabad police arrested three people who they said were affiliated with the BJP at a farmhouse in Moinabad, located on the outskirts of Hyderabad. In response to the allegations, the accused and the BJP have denied them. A judicial remand was granted to the trio, who claimed they had gone to the farmhouse to attend a religious ritual.

C V Anand, the Hyderabad CP, heads the SIT. —ENS