With the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) set to file the FIR in the Belekeri port iron ore scam as per a Supreme Court order, trouble has started brewing for over 700 government officials indicted by former Lokayukta Santosh Hegde in his second report on the mining scam.
While recommending a CBI probe, the apex court constituted Central Empowered Committee (CEC) had said that between January 1, 2009 and May 31, 2010, about 50.79 lakh MT iron ore was transported from Bellary-Sandur-Hospet mining fields 400 km away to Belekeri port in Karwar district and from there, ore was exported overseas. “The transportation of such a huge quantity of ore involving more than 5 lakh trips over 16 months, could not have been possible without the knowledge and active connivance of the officers concerned and other public servants”, the CEC report pointed out.
The country’s premier investigating agency is expected to exchange information with the Lokyukta and Income Tax department sleuths and consider the reports of the Lokayukta and CEC, which had strongly indicted government officials, during the course of the investigation.
Government officials who had colluded with illegal miners-exporters, have so far been successful in escaping the clutches law though both Justice Hegde’s second mining report and the high-level committee headed by former additional chief secretary K. Jairaj, had named several of them. The Jairaj committee had recommended action against 617 of the 787 officials named in the Lokayukta report of whom 150 have passed away.