In a case involving illegal mining in Karnataka, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Karnataka police to probe the role of two former Chief Ministers - N Dharam Singh and HD Kumaraswamy, and submit a report to the court within three months.
Though the scam had involved the role of former Chief Minister SM Krishna as well, the probe will not cover him as the Apex Court had on an earlier occasion on January 27, 2012 stayed investigation against him. Besides Dharam Singh and Kumaraswamy, 11 others including former bureaucrats have been named in a complaint lodged by an anti-corruption crusader TJ Abraham. He had referred to various reports of the then lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde indicting several politicians, bureaucrats and others in siphoning off large tracts of forest land in favour of illegal mining controlled by powerful politicians.
A Bench of Justices PC Ghose and RF Nariman took up the appeals filed by several accused challenging the probe launched by SIT claiming that parallel proceedings before the Magistrate and the lokayukta was not maintainable under law. The Bench assured all accused that the Apex Court was monitoring the case and ordered that no court in the country will interfere or pass any order affecting the investigation.
The case filed by Abraham alleged that the State Government from time-to-time favoured the mining lobby in Karnataka by de-reserving 11,797 square kilometers of forest area in Bellary. In this context, a complaint was lodged against 14 people in 2011 which named the three former CMS.