The CBI, in its charge sheet in the illegal mining case pertaining to the Associated Mining Company (AMC), has quantified the loss caused to the State exchequer at Rs 480 crore.
The CBI had registered an FIR in the AMC case on October 1, 2011 on the directions of the Supreme Court against Janardhana Reddy and 22 others. The CBI has filed the charge sheet in the case against seven people – former minister Janardhana Reddy, his wife G Lakshmi Aruna, former IAS officers and then Mines and Geology Directors M E Shivalingamurthy and S P Raju, Reddy's personal assistant Mehfuz Ali Khan, then Range Forest Officer Mahesh Patil and Deputy Conservator of Forests S Muthaiah. It has stated that investigations are still in progress against others including former Mines and Geology Minister V Muniyappa, Jindal Steel Works and 13 other companies. The CBI has stated that it will file supplementary charge sheets as and when investigations against them are completed.
The CBI officials submitted the 28-page charge sheet and 18,327 pages of annexure documents supporting the charge sheet on Wednesday as the 90-day period of Reddy’s arrest by the Karnataka CBI ended on Wednesday. CBI officials brought the huge cache of documents in nine large iron boxes. The seven accused have been charged with cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, theft, forgery, falsification of accounts under Prevention of Corruption Act.
The CBI has agreed with the observations made by the Lokayukta report on illegal mining on the AMC case.
The CBI has accused M E Shivalingamurthy, the then director of the Department of Mines and Geology of illegally extending AMC’s mining lease for 10 years from 2000.
He is also accused of ratifying the illegal takeover of the company by Reddy and his wife G Lakshmi Aruna, from its original owners K M Parvatamma and family on August 1, 2009.
The investigating agency has stated that during the course of the inquiry, it conducted a ‘3D laser survey’ of the mining lease area and quantified the illegal mining at 40,000 tonnes. However, the CBI stated that while 40,000 tonnes of ore was mined from the lease area, several lakh tonnes of ore were mined from other mining lease areas in the name of AMC.
Payments have been made towards these from the AMC accounts. Taking into account all these, the CBI quantifies that the company made a windfall gain of Rs 480 crore, the loss caused to the State exchequer.
The CBI has accused then Deputy Conservator of Forest S Muthaiah, Range Forest Officer Mahesh Patil and S P Raju of aiding illegal mining in the forest area and also issuing transit permits for ore mined illegally elsewhere, in the name of AMC.