Sagayam passed the civil service examination, but was not chosen as an officer in the Indian Administrative Service(IAS). He then took the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission exams; this allowed him to join the IAS in 1991 as subdivisional magistrate of the city of Ootacamund, a.k.a. Ooty. In Ooty, Sagayam became embroiled in a dispute with the district collector, whom he accused of favouritism toward the operators of large tea estates. Sagayam was relieved of his post and transferred to another. By 2000, Sagayam was additional district magistrate in Kanchipuram.There, he closed the Pepsi bottling plant and forbade the sale of its output after dirt was found in several bottles. He also took on the so-called "sand mafia", responsible for unauthorized mining of sand from the bed of the Palar River, a practice that increases erosion and the incidence of flooding. Sagayam ordered a halt to dredging, and declined to rescind his order despite threats of physical violence.
In 2004, Sagayam, now working as deputy commissioner of civil supplies in Chennai, discovered that subsidized gas cylinders intended for domestic use were being illegally used by restaurants. He confiscated 5000 such cylinders.By 2009, Sagayam had been named district collector of the Namakkal district. In that year, he posted details of his personal assets—a bank balance of Rs 7,172 and a house in Madurai, jointly owned with his wife, worth Rs. 9 lakh
(Rs 900,000)—on the district website. Although this information was on file with the government and thus available for public perusal, Sagayam said, he felt that it should be made more visible to the public. In an interview with the Deccan Herald, he stated that the district collector should set an example of honesty for his subordinates, and that actions like his might tend to rehabilitate the tarnished image of civil servants. Sagayam was the first IAS officer in Tamil Nadu to publicize his financial information thus.
In Namakkal, Sagayam attempted to reform the village administrative officer (VAO) system. He pursued VAOs who lived in cities, far away from the villages that they were charged with overseeing. When VAOs and local politicians attempted to have Sagayam transferred, over 5000 villagers protested the transfer attempt, forcing its withdrawal.
Madurai
In March 2011, at the behest of the Election Commission of India, Sagayam was named district collector of Madurai District and charged with the task of ensuring that the 2011 Legislative Assembly Elections were conducted fairly. Up to that time, Madurai elections had been controlled by M. K. Alagiri, sonof DMK party leader M. Karunanidhi. DMK victories had been assured by the purchase of votes with money and gifts. Sagayam arrived in the state 20 days before voting commenced. He staged a campaign to educate voters about the law, and to urge them to reject proffered bribes; he also stepped up efforts to detect vote-buying, and confiscated Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2,000,000) intended for distribution to voters. Sagayam was twice burned in effigy by DMK loyalists; and two cases were filed against him accusing him of favouring rival party AIADMK, both of which were dismissed. AIADMK won the election, and Sagayam was commended by India's chief election commissioner for his work on the election.
In September 2011, Sagayam again found himself opposed to Alagiri. In constructing a family-owned engineering college near Madurai, Alagiri and family members had purportedly destroyed irrigation canals used by hundreds of impecunious farmers. Sagayam issued a "strongly worded summons" to Alagari and his wife and son, forcing him to come before a court and explain why action should not be taken against them.
Granite quarrying
Granite Scam in Tamil nadu :-
In May 2012, Sagayam investigated reports of illegal granite quarrying in the vicinity of Madurai. These activities had been noted in 2008 by a Right to Information (RTI) activist. Pursuant to his complaint, the Madras High Court had ordered an inquiry in 2009, but nothing came of it until 2010, when Tamil-language daily newspaper Dina Bhoomi ran a series of articles, implicating among others Durai Dayanidhi, Alagiri's eldest son. This led to the arrest on specious charges of the RTI activist and the Dina Bhoomi editor. The issue was brought up in the 2011 elections, and pursued after the AIADMK government was formed.
Sagayam's May 2012 report accused several senior officials of collusion with illegal granite miners, and suggested that losses to the state from illegal mining amounted to at least Rs 16,000 Crore (Rs 160 billion), and possibly twice that. Four days later, he was transferred from his position as district collector to a post as managing director of Co-optex, a handloom weavers' cooperative in Chennai.
Sagayam came into conflict with a superior at Co-optex as well. When a manager at the cooperative was assaulted by members of AIADMK, Sagayam filed a complaint against the assailants, contrary to the wishes of state textiles minister S. Gokula Indira. He also refused to provide permanent office space in the cooperative's building to Indira, maintaining that this would interfere with the cooperative's functioning. As a result of this, Sagayam was transferred twice in September 2014: first to the position of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy commissioner; then, two days later, to the vice-chairmanship of Science City in Chennai.
Although the granite-quarrying investigation had languished after Sagayam's transfer, the issue did not die. Sagayam's report was leaked to the press in August 2012, prompting a public outcry that compelled the government to pursue the matter. Under Anshul Mishra, Sagayam's successor as district collector, a number of arrests were made in January 2013; Durai Dayanidhi went into hiding. Several officials, including two former Madurai district collectors, were investigated for alleged collusion with illegal granite operations. However, in June 2013, Mishra was transferred, and the investigation again lost all momentum.
In July 2014, a citizen activist filed a petition with the Madras High Court, seeking to rekindle the inquiry. In response, the court appointed Sagayam to the post of Special Officer-cum-Legal Commissioner, charged with the task of investigating all mining operations in Tamil Nadu, and ordered the state government to relieve him of the Science City post. The government attempted to contest the order, maintaining that the investigation was concluded; the court rejected their arguments and, in November 2014, Sagayam was duly appointed. It was suggested, however, that the state government might attempt to limit his investigation to granite operations in the Madurai area, keeping him from looking into sand mining on the beaches and along the rivers of the state.
