New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday has attached properties of Tamil cinema producer Dhayanidhi, the son of DMK leader and former Union cabinet minister MK Alagiri. 

The ED has provisionally attached 25 movable and immovable properties consisting of lands, buildings in Madurai, Chennai and fixed deposits, worth Rs 40.34 crores.  

Dhayanidhi is also the grandson of late DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi. 

Dhayanidhi, who owns a company called Olympus Granites Pvt. Ltd, is facing a case of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002(PMLA) in illegal granite mining case. 

The ED initiated an investigation under the PMLA against Dhayanidhi’s company to identify the crime proceeds on the basis of an FIR and charge sheet filed by the Tamil Nadu Police against the company.

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"The charge sheet discloses the commission of various offences including offences under the Indian Penal Code, 1860, Explosive Substances Act, 1908 etc by the accused consequent to the illegal granite mining indulged by the company and other accused. The company, its shareholders/ promoters/ directors viz., S. Nagarajan and Alagiri Dhayanidhi along with other accused, criminally conspired and indulged in illegal mining activities in the adjacent TAMIN leased land and thereby caused wrongful loss to the government and corresponding wrongful gain to themselves," the ED said in a statement.

ED investigation has also revealed that the company and its promoters/shareholders/directors have committed a scheduled offence and derived proceeds of crime by indulging in the illegal quarrying and the trade proceeds of the company derived were further relentlessly incubated resulting in further accruals of proceeds of crime, all of which were camouflaged in the organisational system as business earnings, the ED added.