BENGALURU: The Siddaramaiah cabinet on Thursday decided to hand over six cases of smuggling of iron ore to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has refused to probe them.
“Of the nine smuggling and illegal mining cases entrusted to CBI for investigation, the state government will hand over six to SIT as the former refused to probe them. The chief secretary has been asked to place details in this regard at the next cabinet meeting. We will discuss and take a call on the matter, including formation of SIT,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil said.
“The matter was discussed at Thursday’s cabinet meeting. The CBI, in 2019, informed the state government that it could not probe iron ore smuggling into Goa’s Mormugao and Panaji, Tamil Nadu’s Ennore and Chennai, Karnataka’s New Mangalore and Karwar, and Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna Pattanam, Kakinada and Visakhapatnam ports,” Patil said.
“All cases of illegal mining have to be properly investigated. Therefore, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has instructed the chief secretary to place details related to the investigation of these cases at the next cabinet meeting,” he said.
The minister said the Lokayukta SIT will probe 10 companies under the ‘C’ category, which caused huge losses to the state’s exchequer through illegal mining.
Interestingly, a company owned by former KPCC chief Allam Veerabhadrappa is involved in the alleged illegal mining. Mysore Manganese Company, M Dasharatha Rami Reddy’s firm, Karnataka Limpo, Anjana Minerals, Rajiya Khanum’s firm, Milan Minerals (Mahalakshi & Co.), Channakesava Reddy’s Lakshminarasimha Mining Company, and M Srinivasulu’s and G Rayashekhar’s companies are accused of illegal iron ore mining.
They were involved in illegal mining in more than 10 areas outside the leased zones and leases were given in violation of the Forest Protection Act and other norms. Therefore, the cabinet decided to ask the Lokayukta SIT to file a case against these companies over their mining leases, he said.