Bengaluru: Anand Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, who was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Lokayukta that is investigating illegal mining cases, has resigned. He was nabbed for his role in illegal mining.

Reports say that he asked the DIG Prisons to hand over his resignation letter to Speaker Kagodu Thimmapparesigned as member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Monday.

There has been no official comment by the Lokayuktha police and Additional Director-General of Police (Prisons) Kamal Pant refused to comment on the issue.

The Legislative Assembly Secretariat said the Speaker’s office has denied receipt of the resignation.

Sources close to Mr. Singh, who was Tourism Minister in the previous BJP government, said he has tendered resignation citing inability to focus on his Vijayanagara constituency in Ballari district. Mr. Singh is the owner of S.B. Minerals and has been charged with illegally supplying 17,086 tonnes of iron ore to Muneer Enterprises.

In October 2013, the Anti-Corruption Bureau of the CBI, Bengaluru, had accused Mr. Singh of supplying 1.45 lakh tonnes of illegally mined iron ore to two trading companies.