BENGALURU: The ED on Tuesday arrested Congress MLA from Karwar-Ankola Sathish Krishna Sail in connection with a money laundering case linked to the illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri Port. He is the second MLA from the ruling party to be arrested by the central agency in a span of 18 days. On August 23, Chitradurga MLA KC Veerendra was arrested by ED.
Sail was earlier convicted in the illegal export of iron ore, following which ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against him.
In connection with this case, Sail appeared for questioning at the ED’s Shantinagar office on Tuesday. However, as he reportedly did not cooperate with the probe, he was taken into custody.
He was taken to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital for a medical examination and later produced before the special court for sitting and former MPs and MLAs late at night, which gave his one-day custody to ED.
He will be produced before the court again on Wednesday where the agency will seek for his custodial remand, the sources said.
The ED had raided the MLA’s residence on August 13 and 14 and seized Rs 1.68 crore in cash, 6.75 kg of gold, and several documents, while also freezing bank accounts worth Rs 14.13 crore. Sleuths searched multiple locations in Karwar, Goa, Mumbai and Delhi as part of the ongoing probe into Sail and others convicted by the special court in the iron ore export scam.
An earlier ED press release stated that the total value of illegal exports carried out by Sail and others was Rs 86.78 crore.
The special court had convicted Sail and others in the case in October 2024, sentencing them to seven years and imposing a fine. He was later released after the High Court stayed the lower court’s order pending appeal.
TOTAL SEIZURE IN VEERENDRA CASE CROSSES Rs 100 CRORE
Bengaluru/Chitradurga: The Bengaluru Zonal Office of the ED carried out searches on September 6 on the premises of Chitradurga MLA KC Veerendra and others at Challakere under the provisions of PMLA, 2002, and recovered valuables and other documents related to cheating public in illegal online betting. The ED release stated that during the searches, 24 carat gold bullion weighing 21.43 kg, 11 units of gold-coated silver bars weighing 10.985 kg and gold jewellery around 1 kg, valued at approximately Rs 24 crore, were seized. It also said that, the cumulative seizure of Proceeds of Crime (POC) in this case crossed Rs 100 crore as on date.