A week after the Supreme Court ordered an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into allegedly illegal export of five million metric tonnes of iron ore valued Rs 2,500 crore from the Belekeri port in Karnataka, CBI officials on Saturday raided houses and offices linked to 16 firms.
The raids were conducted on 16 firms engaged in the trading, transport and export of iron ore in Bangalore, Karwar, Hospet and Goa. “As directed by the Supreme Court in its order dated September 7, 2012, we have conducted raids. We formed 15 teams of officers, raided these firms simultaneously and seized several incriminating documents,” a top CBI official told Business Standard.
A CBI team from Hyderabad, income tax officials and state CID officials have raided many of these firms in the past two years and seized some documents. “We will go through the documents seized earlier before taking further action,” he said.
The anti-corruption bureau of the CBI, Bangalore, had filed a first information report (FIR) in the case late on Friday. The anti-corruption bureau has registered five cases and one preliminary inquiry against various firms and exporters in connection with illegally excavated iron ore totalling five million tonnes and subsequent export from the Belekeri port.
The raids were conducted at 17 places in four cities on residences and offices of iron ore exporters. However, no arrests have been made so far. The raids were also conducted at the premises of some associates of jailed mining baron and former Karnataka tourism minister G Janardhan Reddy in Hospet and Sandur.
Without disclosing names, the official confirmed raids were conducted on firms named in a Central Empowered Committee (CEC) report.
The CEC has indicted leading exporters ILC Industries, Dream Logistics Company (India), S B Logistics and Shree Mallikarjuna Shipping , among others.
Two CEC reports dated April 27 and September 6 had recommended a detailed probe covering all aspects of the illegalities associated with the raising, transport, sale and purchase, storage and disposal of 3.4 million tonnes of iron ore exported from January 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010 by these exporters.
According to the CEC, as many as 73 firms exported as much as five million tonnes of iron ore illegally from ports in Karnataka between January 2009 and May 2010. During the period, the state government issued mineral dispatch permits for about 3.82 million tonnes for export from the Belekeri port.
“The transport of such a huge quantity of iron ore involving over 500,000 truck trips could not have been possible without the knowledge and active connivance of the officers and other public servants concerned,” the CEC report had said.
It may be noted that of the five million tonnes of iron ore alleged to have been illegally exported, over 800,000 tonnes was actually under seizure orders by the forest department and the court before being exported in violation of the orders.
During the hearing last week, the forest bench of the Supreme Court had asked the Karnataka government as to how law enforcing agencies, particularly the CID, were unaware of illegal mining on such a huge scale in its own forest reserves.
