BENGALURU: A father and son duo was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 52.30 lakh, along with a fine of Rs 25,000 on their partnership firm after charges of illegal transportation of iron ore from the Belekeri port was proven at the Special Court for trial of cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
On Friday, Special Court Judge KM Radhakrishna sentenced H Sajjad Vahab, his father H Abdul Vahab and Sameera Trading Company at Hospet for offences under IPC and Mines and Minerals (Development Regulation) Act. The judge said such illegal activities pose a serious threat to the environment, compelling citizens to face natural disasters and affecting the nation's economy and that stringent punishment may prevent such offences.
Judge Radhakrishna objected to the conduct of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Karnataka Lokayukta for dropping the names of officials of different departments and filing a chargesheet against only three convicted accused for illegal transportation of 1,923 metric tonne of stolen iron ore between 2009 and 2010 to Belekeri port from their stockyard.
On the statement of the GST superintendent from the Customs Department recorded during the trial, the judge stated that the illegal transportation of iron ore is highly impossible without the 'blessings' of officials from the Department of Mines and Geology, Forest, Revenue, Commercial Tax, Transport, Port and Customs authorities, including the service providers. He said this is the reason the state is losing crores of rupees.
"The failure of SIT and its negligence to identify the real culprit officials, mining owners and traders is unfortunate. I do not understand why the officers are not investigating the possible involvement of these departments in the crimes.
As observed by this court in many cases, they used to give the go-by to the prime accused and 'bless' the official culprits. The officers themselves were found destroying the evidence, delaying the investigation by 10 to 15 years stating various reasons," the judge said.