Karnataka mining case: Supreme Court stays criminal proceedings against chief of monitoring panel

It was submitted that being agitated by the work undertaken by the monitoring committee, certain individuals who were adversely affected have turned inimical towards Sarmah.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed criminal proceedings initiated against Deepak Sarmah, chairman of the monitoring committee in respect of Karnataka mining case, in a land grabbing case with regard to allotment of a plot more than 50 years ago.

A bench of Chief Justice of India B R Gavai and Justices M M Sundresh and K Vinod Chandran issued notice to the Chief Secretary of Karnataka and the Commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), calling upon them to submit their remarks on the report submitted by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC).

In its proceedings on September 18, the court stayed further proceedings against the 1977-batch Karnataka cadre IFS officer Sarmah until further orders.

Senior advocate Shyam Divan, acting as amicus curiae, submitted that Sarmah has been working as the Chairman of the Monitoring Committee constituted by this court by an order on September 23, 2011.

He submitted that on account of the voluminous work done by the Monitoring Committee, an amount of approximately Rs 72,050 Crores has been collected as sale proceeds through E-auctions, including Rs 2,500 crore from the sale of confiscated material.

The counsel submitted that being agitated by the work undertaken by the monitoring committee, certain individuals who were adversely affected have turned inimical towards Sarmah.

Consequently, criminal proceedings alleging land grabbing have been initiated against him in respect of a plot that had been sanctioned more than 50 years ago, on which Sarmah had constructed a house in 1990s.

The court issued notice and fixed the matter for consideration after four weeks.