Karnataka: 19 Belekeri miners get SIT clean chit

Bengaluru: The Lokayukta Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the illegal mining scam has reportedly filed ‘B’ report in 19 cases, giving clean chit to companies that were accused of illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri port in Uttara Kannada.

It is learnt the SIT has submitted ‘B’ report to the court over the period of last two years. Some of the cases were against the companies that are run by politicians including Congress MLA Anil Lad and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Anand Singh.

However the SIT officials did not wish to reveal the names of the companies, as investigation in other cases was still in progress and the officials of the same companies were the accused.

“We had registered 69 FIRs in connection with illegal mining. In the last two years, we have submitted ‘B’ report in 19 cases due to lack of evidence. In 28 cases, we have filed chargesheet, while five cases are already under trial. Another 17 cases are still under investigation. We have neither filed ‘B’ report nor chargesheet in the last three months,” an official said.

Probe ordered in 2013
Following a report submitted by the former Lokayukta Justice N. Santosh Hegde, the state government had in 2013 constituted the Special Investigation Team under the Karnataka Lokayukta to investigate cases related to illegal iron ore mining.

The Special Investigation Team is probing those cases where the quantity of exported iron ore is less than 50,000 metric tonnes, as the Central Bureau of Investigation is investigating cases in which it was more than 50,000 tonnes of ore was exported.