Bellary(DC) :Besides prominent politicians and mining industry bigwigs, a condom and contraceptive pills manufacturing public sector undertaking is also under the scanner of the CBI investigating the Belekeri port iron ore export scam.
HLL Lifecare Ltd (formerly Hindustan Latex Limited), a Union ministry of health and family welfare undertaking, is one of the 22 companies the CBI registered FIRs against in October. The firm, based in Thiruvananthapuram has a regional marketing office in Banasawadi in Bangalore.
The CBI has filed a case against HLL Life Care as it claims to have evidence that it exported 1, 06,739 metric tonnes of iron ore from Belekeri port between January 2009 and May 2010 without valid permits.
Going the company website, HLL is a Mini Ratna, upgraded as a Schedule B Central Public Sector Enterprise. It is also the only company in the world which manufactures and markets such a wide range of contraceptives. Producing 1.316 billion condoms annually, it is one of the worlds leading condom manufacturers.
But it has also been involved in iron ore trading for several years. Procuring iron ore fines from sources other than the National Mineral Development Corporation operated by the Union steel ministry, it supplies it to the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd for a lower price than charged by the NMDC.
Both Hindustan Latex Limited and HLL Life Care are prominent iron ore exporters registered with the Mormugoa Port Trust in Goa.