Belekeri: Another MLA held

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Bellary: A day after arresting BSR Congress MLA from Kampli T.H. Suresh Babu; on Friday the Central Bureau of Investigation, Bengaluru branch probing the Belekeri port iron ore export scam has arrested Independent MLA from Karwar Satish Sail after summoning him for interrogation at its premises.
Sail is proprietor of Karwar-based M/s Shri Mallikarjun Shipping Company (SMSC) Pvt Ltd, which exports iron ore and is the stevedore at Belekeri port.
Sources close to the probe told DC that SMSC exported 7.23 lakh metric tones of illicit iron ore from Belekeri port from January 2009 to May 2010. Sail was the rebel Congress candidate in 2013 assembly polls and has re-joined Congress party after winning the elections as an independent.
Sources said that CBI teams have begun a hunt for former minister and Hospet BJP MLA B.S. Anand Singh and independent MLA from Kudligi B. Nagendra, neither of whom turned up for interrogation even after CBI sleuths issued a summons to them on Friday. They are reportedly absconding fearing their imminent arrest.
Vivek Hebbar, son of Yallapur Congress MLA Shivaram Hebbar who operates M/s Dream Logistics Pvt Ltd is also said to be under the CBI scanner.
According to sources; Sail’s SMSC sourced illicit iron ore from M/s Vaishani Minerals of Anand Singh, M/s Eagle Traders and Logistics owned by Nagendra and M/s Janadevi Minerals owned by Suresh Babu.
Besides, as a stevedore he connived with illicit iron ore exporters and had been active part of the conspiracy hatched to steal and export illicit iron ore, which was seized by the Forest department in March 2010.
According to sources Sail had been helpful to Anand Singh, Nagendra, jailed ore exporters M/s ILC Industries Ltd owner K Somashekhar, Suresh Babu, and other illicit ore traders from Hospet-Bellary region to facilitate illicit export of iron ore from Belekeri port either by bribing or threatening port officers and local police, forest and mines department officers.
Sail run his ore export business using fake permits.Sail connived with jailed former minister Janardhan Reddy to get back seized iron ore by submitting permits issued to some other mining companies in the writ petitions filed before High Court bench in his favour. In reality,Sail did not have any genuine business transactions with those mining companies.
Kampli MLA in judicial custody till Sept. 27
The CBI Special Court hearing the Illegal Mining case remanded MLA Suresh Babu of the BSR Congress party in judicial custody till September 27.
The MLA from Kampli constituency was arrested on Thursday evening by the CBI officials for alleged involvement in the illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri port in Karwar.
After his arrest, Babu was subjected to the mandatory medical tests and produced before the court on Friday morning. He is the nephew of BSR Congress founder and former minister B. Sreeramulu.
The alleged scam was exposed by former Karnataka Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde, who had said 7.74 million tonnes of iron ore were illegally exported between 2006-2007 and 2010-11, causing huge loss to the exchequer.