Court must monitor mining scam

CHITRADURGA: Samaja Paravirthana Samudaya (SPS) president S R Hiremath urged the state to file a petition in the Supreme Court seeking court monitored CBI or Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the mining scam.He said that while probes supervised by the government would be open to suspicion, enquiry would be transparent and errant officials would be brought to book when the SC supervises the inquiry.He said that SPS had filed an interlocutory application on August 2 in the SC demanding the court to either direct CBI or set-up SIT to probe into the scam.“At present, the CBI is partly investigating the case.However, as majority of illegal miners in he state are involved with the firms in Andhra Pradesh, it should include Karnataka in its ambit,” he elaborated.Hiremath noted that those who were involved in illegal mining have evaded taxes to the tune of thousands of crores and are involved in money laundering, so there is a need for an enquiry by a premier investigating agency, he added.