Whistleblower alleges Tamil Nadu granite tycoon sacrificed humans to appease gods

The PRP group has put forward many questions to Sevarkodiyan, but he is untroubled and stands firm on his allegations.

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In 1999, Prabhu alias Sevarkodian was working as a driver with PRP Granites, India’s largest granite exporter. It was towards the end of the year that Sevarkodian allegedly witnessed something at the quarry that frightened him and has now become a matter of probe – the granite exporters, according to him, were sacrificing humans.

“I had brought an oil motor to Malampatti village in Madurai and was taking the damaged one back for repair. A manager with the quarry was in the car with me. I saw two dead bodies being dragged to a pit, a huge digger was at work, digging a pit to bury the bodies,” he told The News Minute.

Sevarkodian has made the sensational charge that PRP Granites has sacrificing mentally unsound people several times in the past, but his allegation is now being taken seriously after Legal Commissioner U Sagayam IAS investigating illegal mining and quarrying exhumed skeletal remains from the exact spot that Sevarkodian had pointed out.

Though the skeletal remains have been sent for bone testing, a concerted campaign by PRP group has put forward many questions to Sevarkodiyan, but the man is untroubled and stands firm on his allegations.

“Many people have asked me why I did not go to the police for 5 years. I was scared, I was under watch,” he says.

According to Sevarkodiyan, the manager in the car had reprimanded him for peeking out and staring at the dead bodies being brought for burial. “I saw the bodies being buried and from that moment on I was on their watch list. I continued to work there for some years, and approached the police as soon as I could quit,” he said.

Picture of Sevarkodiyan

In his complaint first to the police in 2004, later to Madurai collector and finally to U Sagayam, Sevarkodiyan has reiterated that all drivers employed with PRP Granites were asked to bring any mentally unsound persons they saw on the roads and hand them over at the main office. “I had picked a dozen people during my trips to Thoothukudi and other places. When I asked why were doing this, I was told that Palaniswamy the owner of PRP Granites was a man who wanted to help them get cured.”

Why would quarry owners sacrifice humans? “It was to appease the gods. Whenever they acquired more land, the small temples in the stretch had to be destroyed to allow quarrying. So before the destruction of the temple, the humans would be sacrifices,” says Senvarkodiyan, as a matter of fact.

According to him, there was a temple near the spot where he saw the two bodies being buried. “It was considered a powerful god. PRP Granites demolished it and that’s why those two people were sacrificed,” he says.

Some media reports say that according to some villagers, the spot from where the bodies had been exhumed was being used as a burial ground for the past few years.

“No, the burial ground is next to this spot. Yesterday a woman was questioned by the police who clearly told them that her father had not been buried at the exact spot, but a little away,” claims Sevarkodiyan.

PRP Granites has alleged that Sagayam was only trying to deflect attention and delay the report he is supposed to submit to the Madras High Court on September 15 by bringing in a ‘new murder angle’. They had questioned why the Legal commissioner appointed by the HC was looking into the human sacrifice allegations months after Sevarkodiyan approached him.

U Sagayam speaking to the media

“I first met Sagayam sir in 2014, just days after he was appointed by the HC to investigate scams. I had met him three or four times and each time he asked me details about my allegation. But he had clearly told me that he would look into this matter only in the end, after his routine investigation was over,” Sevarkodiyan said.

Since it’s been eleven years since his complaint, was he confident that the alleged remains had not been removed by the company? “I don’t know, they may have removed it. But I am very sure that they would not have done anything in 2004 or for some years after as they had powerful political connections. They were arrogant. When I went to the police in 2004, within one hour I was picked up by company goons and thrashed,” he says.