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The Karnataka government on Thursday said it will extend the tenure of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted under the state Lokayukta to investigate cases of illegal mining, involving less than 50,000 metric tonnes of iron ore, that occurred from 2008 to 2013 when the BJP was in power.
The decision to extend the tenure of the SIT headed by an additional director general of police (ADGP) was taken by the state cabinet in a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The SIT’s tenure has been extended for two years from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2024, Karnataka Law Minister H K Patil said after the cabinet meeting.
“A serious discussion was held on this issue. In 172 of the mining cases, there has not even been a primary investigation (in the last eight years). In 10 of the criminal cases filed, investigations are still pending for the last eight years,” said Patil.
The move to revive the SIT is being seen as having political contours since many BJP leaders were linked to the illegal mining scam that occurred between 2008-13. The Congress had protested against the illegal mining with a march from Bengaluru to Bellary and the protests had served as a vehicle for the party’s return to power in 2013.
The Karnataka Lokayukta SIT was constituted in 2014 by the then Congress government headed by Siddaramaiah to look into the smaller cases of illegal mining that occurred in the state during the previous BJP tenure.
This came after the Supreme Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate large-scale illegal mining involving BJP leaders that was brought to light by the Karnataka Lokayukta in an investigation report in 2011.
The Lokayukta SIT investigations were facilitated when the Congress was in power and the probe was stalled when there was a BJP-led government in the state.
“A report on the committee on waiver of mining duties has not been completed and in 50 cases where chargesheets have been filed the trial should be expedited. I have expressed unhappiness over the progress of investigations,” said law minister Patil, who previously headed a cabinet sub-committee that had oversight into the SIT investigations.
“There are two to three reasons for the delay in the investigations by the SIT. One of the reasons is the lack of administrative will. In the last five years, the progress has been nil. I was the head of the cabinet sub-committee that was overseeing the probe and as long as Charan Reddy (former ADGP of the SIT) was there, the progress was seen,” Patil said.
An investigation into illegal mining by Karnataka Lokayukta in 2010-11 had revealed an illegal export of iron ore worth more than Rs 12,228 crore between 2006 and 2011 from the state. In a report published in July 2011, the Lokayukta detailed the extent of the racket, naming several BJP ministers, including then CM B S Yediyurappa.
Yediyurappa was acquitted in 2016 in a case prosecuted by the CBI where he and members of his family were accused of receiving Rs 40 crore in kickbacks from mining firms.
The CBI probe into illegal mining in Karnataka between 2008-2011, conducted on Supreme Court directions, found that a mining mafia allegedly run by former BJP minister G Janardhan Reddy and his associates excavated iron ore illegally from Bellary and surrounding areas and sold it to traders who transported it to ports and exported it.
“We were in conflict with the CBI on why investigations were being stalled (between 2013-2018. In the last five years (under the BJP tenure), the whole SIT work came to a standstill,” said Patil.
“We gave cases involving the illegal mining of over 50,000 metric tonnes of iron ore to the CBI and we want to review the cases given to the CBI as well since the progress is slow. There was some view expressed that some of the cases cannot be registered,” said Patil.
“It will be reviewed by the CM and there will be steps taken to give a positive action for the investigations and filing of chargesheets in some of the important cases,” he added.
In 2018, the Congress-JDS government in Karnataka asked the SIT to probe illegal exports of iron ore from four ports in Goa and Karnataka between 2006 and 2011. This was done after an investigation into illegal exports from Marmugoa and Panaji in Goa was dropped by the CBI on grounds of lack of evidence.
“We have been forced to order the SIT probe because the CBI has not acted in a legal manner,” Siddaramaiah had said at that time.
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In 2015, the SIT arrested G M Lingaraju, the younger brother of BJP leader G M Siddeshwara, who was then the minister of state for heavy industries in the NDA government, for alleged illegal export of 12,500 metric tonne of iron ore through a family firm.
In the same year, the SIT also arrested Anand Singh, a former BJP minister and a mining businessman, for the illegal sale of 17,086 metric tonnes of iron ore to a firm called Muneer Enterprises.
The SIT also arrested in 2015 the former minister of Karnataka G Janardhana Reddy in its own case of illegal mining pertaining to the period from 2004 to 2006 when the mining boom began.
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