IN 2011, KARNATAKA lokayukta Santosh Hegde submitted a 466-page report detailing the mining scam in Ballari district that cost the state government more than Rs16,000 crore. The report described how the spurt in demand for iron ore, created by China’s infrastructure boom, had led to the granting of as many as 134 mining leases in Karnataka from 2001 to 2008. The leases were granted because of “pressures and political compulsions”, said the report, and they resulted in an illegal mining scam that caused huge losses to the government.
The report had politicians cutting across party lines in the dock. BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa, who was chief minister at the time, was forced to step down. He was also arrested and indicted in a mining-related case and sent to jail.
More than a decade later, another case related to the granting of mining leases is creating controversy. The case pertains to a lease granted in 2007, when Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy was chief minister. Kumaraswamy is alleged to have flouted rules to grant a lease to mine 550 acres of forest land in Sandur, in Ballari district. The lease was obtained by Sri Sai Venkateshwara Minerals (SSVM), a company that allegedly had no experience in mining or selling iron ore.
On August 19 this year, a special investigating team (SIT) of the lokayukta sought Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot’s sanction to file a charge-sheet against Kumaraswamy, who is currently Union minister of heavy industries. According to Kumaraswamy, the move smacked of political vendetta. Two days earlier, the governor had granted sanction to prosecute Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a case related to an alleged land allotment scam. With Kumaraswamy and the opposition demanding his resignation, Siddaramaiah had threatened to “expose” the wrongdoings of opposition leaders who were part of previous governments.
The case in question against Kumaraswamy was filed by the lokayukta SIT in 2015, when Siddaramaiah was chief minister. Records show he was questioned and arrested on August 5, 2015, and was released.
Kumaraswamy, however, maintains that he was not arrested. “On August 5, 2015, the SIT issued summons and, on legal advice, I took anticipatory bail and appeared before it,” he said. “The SIT officials told me they needed only a statement from me…. But I was shocked to find newspaper headlines saying I had been arrested and released.”
Kumaraswamy also said the Supreme Court had, in 2016, directed the SIT to complete the probe in three months and file a report. “The SIT has filed no report even after seven years. The SIT should seek the president’s sanction, and not the governor’s, as I am now a Union minister,” he said.
Interestingly, after the assembly polls in 2018, Kumaraswamy was sworn in as chief minister with the support of the Congress. “Why didn’t Siddaramaiah oppose his party’s decision to make me CM? Why did they allow a so-called tainted chief minister to rule for 14 months?” asked Kumaraswamy.
The case against Kumaraswamy stemmed from a lease application filed by a Maharashtra-based public works contractor named S.V. Sakre. The application, filed on April 17, 2006, said SSVM was a private company. But it later turned out that the address in the application was false, and that SSVM was an unregistered partnership firm. The application, however, was processed in a single day, even though 29 other applications to mine the same area had been pending.
Records show that Kumaraswamy himself gave the approval as chief minister. “I have perused the records. The mining lease [for] 550 acres… [in] Sandur taluk, Bellary district is granted in favour of… Sri Sai Venkateshwara Minerals,” reads the file noting that has his signature.
According to Kumaraswamy, 550 acres in Sandur became available for mining after the company that was originally granted a lease to mine 850 acres surrendered the land after the expiry of the lease and applied to renew it only for 300 acres. As many as 26 companies, including SSMV, had applied for a lease to mine the remaining 550 acres.
“Following file proceedings, a note-sheet sent to me had three lines of typed matter and a handwritten line―‘M/s Sai Venkateshwara’―just before my signature,” said Kumaraswamy. “The line was not in my handwriting. The SIT had to probe who made the noting. Also, the note-sheet sent to the Centre mentioned one Vinod Goel as SSMV’s proprietor. The SIT alleged that I had colluded with Goel to grant [him] the lease. But the note-sheet I signed had no mention of Goel. The SIT should find the real culprits.”
The lokayukta said the granting of the lease to SSVM was “arbitrary and non-transparent”. It said Goel later conspired with government officials to include his name in place of Sakre’s to make unlawful gains. The report had sought departmental inquiry against the officials and criminal proceedings against Goel for cheating, forgery and conspiracy.
Interestingly, the lokayukta report said it would not recommend action against Kumaraswamy, as he was not holding a public post when the report was prepared. “However, it is open for the government to take appropriate action against him for his misconduct,” said the report.
The SIT first sought the governor’s sanction for prosecuting Kumaraswamy on November 21 last year. On August 8, 2024, when BJP and JD(S) leaders were taking part in the ‘Mysore Chalo’ padyatra demanding Siddaramaiah’s resignation, the SIT received a reply from the governor’s office requesting additional inputs. The SIT sent its reply on August 19 and made a fresh plea for the sanction.
According to Siddaramaiah, the delay on the governor’s part in granting this sanction amounts to discrimination. “In my case, the governor granted sanction within hours after a private complaint, even though no investigating agency sought [the sanction],” he said. “But in Kumaraswamy’s case, no sanction was given even though the lokayukta SIT had sought it 10 months ago.”
The mining case has set off a political storm, as the ruling Congress has planned a ‘Raj Bhavan Chalo’ march on August 31, demanding the governor’s sanction to prosecute Kumaraswamy and former BJP ministers Murugesh Nirani, Shashikala Jolle and G. Janardhan Reddy, who have been named in various cases.