CBI officials inspect Congress MLA Anil Lad firm's mining area

BELLARY: 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.

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.