Palemar defends move to suspend Gokul

On Wednesday, Lokayukta Santosh Hegde had said that Palemar had written to the CM to suspend Gokul because the officer acted on the direction of him (Hegde) pertaining to seizure of iron ore in Belekeri port of Karwar.

When contacted by Deccan Herald, Palemar said, “After I heard about the iron ore missing from the port, during my tour of Karwar on June 8, I had convened a meeting of various officials. I had sent a word to Gokul too because he was the one who had dumped the ore in the port. He did not turn up for the meeting.”

Palemar said that even if the officer was not willing to attend the meeting, he could have met him personally to give more details about the theft of the ore.

Dereliction of duty

The Minister said on his return to Bangalore on June 9, he wrote a letter to the Chief Minister requesting him to suspend Gokul on the charges of dereliction of duty as he failed to attend the meeting. This also leads suspicion that whether he was also party to it. Therefore, the officer should be kept  under suspension, the Minister said.

Palemar also said that the case of the missing ore has been referred to the CID for investigation on June 22.

Asked why the ore could not be protected at the port, the Minister said his department is facing severe shortage of staff. Despite being aware of the fact, the DCF just allowed the dumping of ore. And, by producing indemnity bonds, the exporters lifted the ore.

The Minister said that he has highest regards for Justice Hegde and his family. “Justice Hegde has misunderstood the Government. I had to request the Chief Minister to take action against Gokul because he disobeyed. It was his own department’s six checkposts which had allowed transport of ore from a mining area.”

DCF was not obliged to attend meeting

DCF Gokul reportedly decided to keep off the meeting convened by Minister Palemar as it was not a scheduled meeting and he was not obliged to attend it as he did not belong to the departments of ports. Sources in the government said that Palemar had sent a message to Gokul to attend the meeting through Capt Swamy, the port officer of Karwar.

“A police case has been registered against Capt Swamy in connection with the unauthorised ore-lifting case. Gokul was aware that Capt Swamy would be attending the meeting. There are 11 accused export firms. Even the representatives of these companies were present with the minister besides three Stevedores. The Minister is not in charge of Karwar. Then why should the DCF attend the meeting?”, the sources questioned.