Judge of CBI court hearing mining cases transferred

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday transferred the judge of a CBI court which was hearing four important cases of illegal mining.

Judge of the CBI court CCH-47 (46th Additional City Civil court) K H Mallappa had discharged all the accused in the Rs 1,232-crore iron ore mining case against Deccan Mining Syndicate Pvt Ltd (DMSP) on January 31.

The accused in this case, CEO of DMSP Ritesh Milap Chand Jain, its managing director Rajendra Kumar Jain, the then Secretary, Commerce and Industries Shamim Banu, Principal Secretary M Vishwanathan, deputy director, Mines and Geology S K Raju and police inspector Ramakant Y Hullur were discharged at the stage of “hearing before charge”.

Chargesheet

The CBI had filed a comprehensive chargesheet stating that DMSP had carried out illegal mining of iron ore in mining licence (number 2525), which fell within the lease area allotted to National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd (NMDC) in two neighbouring villages – Kumaraswamy and Subbarayanapalli.

The CCH-47 court had taken cognisance of the chargesheet in September 2013 and the trial was yet to commence.

Sources said the CBI had filed an application before the CCH-4 court seeking transfer of some of its major cases from CCH-47 to some other court. Some of the important cases chargesheeted by the CBI before CCH-47 include Associated Mining Company (AMC), involving former minister G Janardhana Reddy and Shree Mallikarjuna Shipping Pvt Ltd, involving Karwar MLA Satish Sail.

The CBI had registered FIRs in these cases on the directions of the Supreme Court in October 2011.