Chennai: Three days after conducting searches at the offices and homes of environment consultants for the state govt in the city and in Vellore, Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday alleged that they acted as shell companiesthrough which kickbacks in the form of consultation fees were paid to officials to expedite clearances for various govt projects.ED claimed it had seized documents, digital records, and property documents, indicating large-scale layering and siphoning of illicit funds, apart from 4.73 crore in cash.The agency alleged a consultant damaged her phone during searches to hide the evidence.The ED searches began on Tuesday at 16 locations belonging to EHS 360 Labs Pvt Ltd, Echo Care Engineering Pvt Ltd, Ensys Technologies, and AlenKar Infra Business Alliance, based on the DVAC’s 2021 first information report against then environment department superintendent S Pandian for accumulating assets beyond known sources of income. Pandian’s residence was also searched as part of the operation. tnn