The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to submit a report on a fresh allegations about illegal mining in Karnataka.
A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam, K.S. Radhakrishnan and Ranjan Gogoi passed the order after the affidavit was filed before the court by the petitioner NGO, Samaja Parivartan Samudaya.
The NGO in its affidavit has given details of the alleged illegalities committed by various private mining firms which hold licences to mine in Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga districts as well as State-owned Mysore Mining Ltd (MML).
The alleged illegalities referred to in the affidavit relate to illegal mining activities, allotment of huge quantities of iron ore at throwaway prices to the PKP Group and companies associated with it and an increase in rates at which iron ore was supplied to other companies not associated with the Poland-based group.
The affidavit states the alleged illegalities were committed under political influence and resulted in a huge loss to MML.
It alleges MML illegally favoured the PKP Group and companies associated with them as “special cases” by realloting them iron ore while reducing by 50 per cent the iron ore being supplied to other allottees.
The affidavit also states that the Centre had ordered an investigation into the Sesa Goa Ltd (SGL), after which the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had tabled its report.
Referring to the SFIO report, the affidavit states that “it was found that the SGL under-invoiced the exports of iron ore to Chinese buyers by Rs. 784 crore in case of exports on long-term basis by SGL. Similarly, in the case of exports of iron ore on spot basis by SGL, it was found that SGL under-invoiced the exports by Rs. 218 crore when the rates were compared with the spot rates provided by the Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation (MMTC)”.
