| Posted on: 2010-06-24/22:06:42 | India - Fraud & Cyber Crime News | Others/ |
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What made minister for environment, ports and inland fishing Krishna Palemar write to chief secretary and chief minister B S Yeddyurappa to suspend DCF Gokul? The officer had unearthed missing iron ore from Bilikere port near Karwar. It was this letter which was the flashpoint, leading to the resignation of Justice Hegde, who gave “shock treatment” to the government so that “the government will think twice before taking action against the crusader in the case”. According to Justice Hegde himself, the Bilikere port scam exceeds Rs 2,000 crore, contrary to the earlier estimation of over Rs 250 crore. The sequence of events, where the minister wrote the letter to suspend Gokul, clearly hints that it was a deliberate move to hush up the incident and derail the probe. Copies of Palemar’s letters, which are in possession of TOI, say that the minister had called DCF Gokul to discuss the missing ore issue and get details. “The DCF did not come for the meeting and has exhibited dereliction of duty. This also gives rise to suspicion that he must be party to the scam. So, pending inquiry, he should be suspended and furnish a detailed report on the action initiated against him,’’ the letter said. BACKGROUND The entire scam began in February, when chief conservator of forests U V Singh, who is helping the Lokayukta in the mining probe, intercepted some trucks near Karwar. To their surprise, along with iron ore, they seized 40 gunny bags of ‘iron ore transport permits’. They also received information that more illegal iron ore had reached Bilikere port. In March, local DCF Gokul was asked to raid the port, and he seized over 8 lakh metric tonne of illegal iron ore, which was dumped in the dockyard without a valid permit. The forest department seized the ore and filed cases against 10 mining companies. The ore was under custody of an ACF, customs officials and port officials. Soon aftere, the 10 companies approached the high court, seeking release of the ore. However, they did not get a favourable order and the court asked them to file objections as to why Lokayukta should not be party to this case. Instead of filing objections, the entire ore was shipped away from the port itself. “They must have presumed that the monsoon would set in, and officials could say that the ore dumped in the dockyard was washed away in the high tide. But the monsoon set in late and the scam came out,’’ Justice Hegde said. Immediately, Justice Hegde asked Gokul to file a criminal contempt of court case against the 10 companies, along with theft and breach of trust cases. Despite pressure, Gokul went ahead and filed the case, which got him into trouble. According to sources, Palemar was in the forefront, pressuring Gokul not to lodge a complaint against the mining companies. When Gokul did not budge, he wrote a letter to the government. Meanwhile, the Lokayukta team investigating the illegal ore export from Bilikere found out that the missing 5 lakh metric tonne of ore was just the tip of the iceberg. “Now, we are sitting on so much information, and during the past three months, iron ore worth over Rs 2,000 crore was illegally exported from the same port. Worse is that they have not paid any customs duty. Now, it is confirmed that 40 bags of iron ore transport permits that were seized in February, are fake. We are not sure what to do with this information,’’ the sources added. |
| Source: Times | Location : Bangalore |
