Sagayam, whose office door bears a sign reading "Reject bribes, hold your head high", repeatedly antagonized influential politicians and their supporters in Tamil Nadu.

[1] They have also won him a reputation for probity; in the words of a Daily News and Analysis correspondent, "The common man's collector has become the hero of the local folklore".

[2][4][7] 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.

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.

In constructing a family-owned engineering college near Madurai, Alagiri and family members had purportedly destroyed irrigation canals used by hundreds of impecunious farmers.

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.

[citation needed] 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.

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.

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.

Sagayam's report was leaked to the press in August 2012, prompting a public outcry that compelled the government to pursue the matter.

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.

On one occasion, when the police were slow to exhume bodies of alleged victims of human sacrifice carried out by quarry operators, Sagayam spent the night in the graveyard to ensure that no one tampered with the evidence.

The investigation discovered evidence of extensive illegal granite-mining from public and private land, and diversion or destruction of rivers and water bodies.