Truckloads of iron ore seized, six arrested

Range Forest Officer, Mahesh Patel, seized the ore consignment and the lorries. Cases were registered against the six lorry drivers on January 18.

Patel told Deccan Herald on Thursday that the services of the police had been utilised during the operation to nab the culprits and seize the consignment on January 17. 

While there is already an ore checkpost on the outskirts of Vithalapura, a temporary mineral checkpost has been opened at Dibbaladinni.

The accused usually take the consignment through Lingadahalli, Metrakki, Rajapura, Gangalapura and Dibbaladinni to Veerhalu and Malapanagudi in Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh, the people allege.

They say that the latest case lends credence to what Lokayukta Santosh Hegde has been saying all along on ore being illegally transported from the Bellary region to Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, though there is a ban on export of ore.