CBI officials inspect Cong MLA firm`s mining area

A CBI team inspected the mining area and stockyard of a company in the district of which ruling Congress MLA Anil Lad is a partner, in connection with the alleged scam of exporting iron ore illegally from Belikere port.

Bellary: A CBI team on Saturday inspected the mining area and stockyard of a company in the district of which ruling Congress MLA Anil Lad is a partner, in connection with the alleged scam of exporting iron ore illegally from Belikere port.

The 10-member team, during its inspection of V S Lad and Sons company`s mining area, sought to know the extent of ore excavated, official sources said. CBI has been investigating the case on a Supreme Court order which had appointed the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) into the issue. The illegal export of iron ore from Belikeri port in Karnataka`s Uttara Kannada district was exposed by former Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde, who in his report, had said 7.74 million tonnes of iron ore were illegally exported between 2006-2007 and 2010-11, causing huge loss to the exchequer. CBI had earlier arrested four MLAs --Anand Singh (BJP), B Nagendra and Satish Sail, both independents and Suresh Babu of BSR Congress headed by former minister B Sriramulu, a close aide of mining baron and former minister Janardhana Reddy, in connection with the scam.