Bellary: A day after arresting BSR Congress MLA from Kampli T.H. Suresh Babu; on Friday the Central Bureau of Investigation, Bengaluru branch probing the Belekeri port iron ore export scam has arrested Independent MLA from Karwar Satish Sail after summoning him for interrogation at its premises.
Sail is proprietor of Karwar-based M/s Shri Mallikarjun Shipping Company (SMSC) Pvt Ltd, which exports iron ore and is the stevedore at Belekeri port.
Sources close to the probe told DC that SMSC exported 7.23 lakh metric tones of illicit iron ore from Belekeri port from January 2009 to May 2010. Sail was the rebel Congress candidate in 2013 assembly polls and has re-joined Congress party after winning the elections as an independent.
Sources said that CBI teams have begun a hunt for former minister and Hospet BJP MLA B.S. Anand Singh and independent MLA from Kudligi B. Nagendra, neither of whom turned up for interrogation even after CBI sleuths issued a summons to them on Friday. They are reportedly absconding fearing their imminent arrest.
Vivek Hebbar, son of Yallapur Congress MLA Shivaram Hebbar who operates M/s Dream Logistics Pvt Ltd is also said to be under the CBI scanner.
Sail run his ore export business using fake permits.Sail connived with jailed former minister Janardhan Reddy to get back seized iron ore by submitting permits issued to some other mining companies in the writ petitions filed before High Court bench in his favour. In reality,Sail did not have any genuine business transactions with those mining companies.