TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Offices of two mining companies-– one in north and other in south Goa were simultaneously raided by separate teams of the central bureau of investigation (CBI), Bangalore as part of a pan-India operation on Thursday in connection with the Belekeri mining scam in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka. The CBI simultaneously carried out searches across 18 other locations including Bangalore, Bellary, Hospet, Sandur, Salem, Kolkata, Mumbai and Gurgaon.
The searches were carried out in the morning and went on till late afternoon wherein the CBI teams seized certain documents pertaining to the case investigation. No arrests were reported till the time of going to the press, but some persons were questioned during the raid.
Sources say that the CBI team visited the mines and geology department office, Panjim probably to gather information related to the case.
The Bangalore unit of CBI is investigating into 22 cases of illegal export of iron ore worth 50,000 metric tonnes between 2009-2010 from Belekeri port. The cases were registered following supreme court directions.
The CBI has already arrested four sitting MLAs from Karnataka in connection with this case. Former Karnataka minister G Janardhana Reddy, the main accused in the case, is in jail for over two years.
