Just as Lalu Prasad meets his nemesis 17 years after the fodder scam in Bihar, the CBI investigations into the case of the missing iron-ore in Karnataka is spreading jitters among Karnataka's high and mighty. Two MLAs have already been arrested, two others interrogated and bureaucrats too face the heat as the CBI is intensifying its probe into the illegal mining exports took place four years ago under the BJP rule. The Supreme Court has ordered the CBI to conduct a thorough probe into the mining mafia of Karnataka.
Suresh Babu and Satish Sail, MLAs from Bellary and the coastal town of Karwar have been arrested by the CBI, last week. Anand Singh, BJP MLA from Bellary district, has gone to Singapore for the treatment of an alleged health problem as he awaits verdict in an anticipatory bail plea. The CBI has summoned him for the questioning.
Independent MLA B Nagendra and a close aide of jailed mining baron G Janardhan Reddy is also being quizzed in the case. Two former IAS officers, two Indian Forest Service officers and those from other departments too are in the custody in this pan-Karnataka operation. As the cookie crumbles, more of the high-and-mighty are facing the heat in the illegal mining cases after the CBI's raids across Karnataka. Seven cases have so far been filed, but the CBI sources say 22 more cases will be lodged soon, as the probe intensifies.
Navkesh Batra, lawyer of an accused Indian Forest Service officer said "Charges added are offences under criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and trespass, read with prevention of corruption act and criminal misconduct".
With the CBI's recent spate of raids and arrests, both bureaucrats and politicians are in jitters. Especially since the retired Lokayukta justice N Santosh Hedge report named more than 700 officials of the forest, mining and transport departments as being involved in this scam worth tens of thousands of crores. So far barely a handful of them have been named in the charge sheets. Many suspects are allegedly hiding fearing a CBI summons.
According to TB Jayachandra, law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister of Karnataka, there is no question of sparing anybody and the matter is also between the government and the state Lokayukta.
In a significant developments, the defence lawyers are also dragging in national leaders of the BJP like Sushma Swaraj and LK Advani, arguing that they as much a part of the conspiracy as the others for aiding the mining republic in Bellary, as exposed by a letter written by a suspended BJP MLC Lehar Singh, recently.
Advocate Navkesh Batra said "There were many who were directly or indirectly involved. They should certainly be added to this magic section of 120B".
The case of the missing 50 lakh tonnes of iron ore is set to haunt some of Karnataka's rich and mighty in the days to come.
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