Bengaluru: A Special Court of People's Representatives on Saturday awarded 7 years rigorous imprisonment to Congress MLA from Karwar Satish Krishna Sail and six others for theft and export of seized iron ore case in 2009-10.
In total six cases, the court convicted MLA Satish Sail and the then port conservator Mahesh Biliye on October 24 and and announced the sentence on Saturday.
The convicts were sentenced to 7 years imprisonment in the fraud case, 5 years in the conspiracy case and 3 years in the ore theft case.
Along with Satish Sail, port conservator Mahesh Biliye, Lalvuhal Company owner Premchand Garg, Srilaxmi Venkateswara Traders owner Kharadapudi Mahesh, Swastik Company owners KV Nagaraj and Govindaraju, Ashapura Company owner Chetan and ILC Company owner Somashekar (died) have been sentenced.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 40 crore (Rs 6 crore, Rs 9 crore, Rs 9 crore, Rs 9.52 crore, Rs 9.25 crore and Rs 90 lakh) in relation to the six cases against all the accused. Besides, the court ordered the Karnataka government to forfeit the penalty money.
The order by the court covers six cases related to the illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered the case on September 13, 2012, against Mahesh J Biliye, then port conservator of Belekeri Port, and others on orders of the Supreme Court to investigate the alleged theft of iron ore seized by forest officials at the port.
The CBI said 1,29,553.54 MT of ore was stolen out of 5,00,000 MT seized by forest officials.
The then Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, who investigated the case, told 'ETV Bharat'. ''It may be late for the convicts in the Belekeri port ore case to be sentenced. But when the sentence is given late, it is equally difficult for convicts to serve it."
''The law is the same for everyone, be it common people or public figures. The verdict in this case will further increase the faith in the judicial system. And I am happy about this verdict. In the future, we should know in advance that whoever is guilty, will also be punishable under the law," Hegse said.
Hegde, who brought the case to light in 2009-10 had conducted a comprehensive investigation and submitted a report to the Karnataka government.
