Bangalore: The CBI on Monday carried out searches
at various locations in Karnataka including the residences of
two MLAs from Congress and BJP in connection with alleged
illegal mining in the state.
The action comes nearly a week after the Supreme Court
sought the CBI`s response with regard to its probe into
alleged connections between mining activities in the state`s
Bellary district and Ananthpur in Andhra Pradesh.
CBI sources said searches were carried out at the
premises of Associated Mining Company and Syndicate Mining
besides the residence of BJP MLA G Janardhana Reddy and
Congress MLA B Nagendra.
The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice SH
Kapadia had on September 23 directed the CBI to investigate
the linkages as it "prima facie found that material (ore)
extracted by two companies...is being routed through
Obulapuram in AP.
"It is for this reason we are issuing notice to the CBI.
We want the CBI to investigate this aspect of linkage," the
bench had said.
The CBI also searched the office of JSW owned by Sajjan
Jindal as the agency claimed that it had also been a
beneficiary of the iron ore for its steel plant, agency
sources said.
JSW said that no searches had been conducted but a CBI
team visited the company`s Vijayanagar works this morning and
sought certain information about procurement of iron ore.
"JSW Steel has and will fully cooperate and provide all
the information that may be sought by the authorities
concerned in this regard," the company said in a statement.
It said JSW Steel has been procuring iron ore from
various sources for its steel production requirements and
every tonne procured is accounted for and paid for in
compliance with applicable rules and regulations.
The CBI, probing alleged illegal mining and
irregularities in allotment of mining leases to Obulapuram
Mining Company (OMC), had arrested one of the three Reddy
brothers, G Janardhana Reddy, and OMC Managing Director
Srinivas Reddy on September 5 from Bellary in Karnataka.
The duo are under judicial custody till October 3 and
have been lodged at Chanchalguda Central Prison in Hyderabad.
The Supreme Court had passed the order after perusing the
September 21 report of the Central Empowered Committee
regarding the survey and demarcation, e-auction and related
issues pertaining to the mining leases in the districts of
Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur.
PTI
