CEC seeks State's reply over demand for CBI probe

The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has sought a response from the Karnataka government to the demand for a CBI probe into the entire gamut of mining activities that took place in the State since 2002.

Following a petition filed by T J Abraham, a resident of Bangalore, the CEC has written to the Karnataka chief secretary seeking a reply to the petitioner’s allegations. 

Abraham had pleaded before the CEC that mining activities, including dereserving of forests and granting of permission for mining by past governments headed by former chief ministers S M Krishna, Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy, should be probed.

Welcoming the CEC recommendations to the Supreme Court to probe the charges against former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and his family members, the petitioner said as several controversial decisions on mining were also taken by past governments, they too should be brought under the ambit of the CBI. 

In 2002, the government headed by Krishna decided to dereserve forest areas for mining. The decision was against the Supreme Court order of 2000 which ruled against dereserving forests or sanctuaries for ore mining, the petitioner said.

He also brought to the CEC’s notice that the files pertaining to decisions on deserving of forests were missing, and said that it was a “deliberate” act to suppress facts.

“The magnitude of illegality, criminality and corruption evidenced in the transactions of Krishna, Dharam Singh and Kumaraswamy governments is more than 100 times the size of corruption charges levelled against Yeddyurappa and his family members,” he said.