Bengaluru, Jul 17 (IANS): A special court on Thursday sent Congress lawmaker Anil Lad to CBI custody till July 20 for interrogating him over his alleged involvement in the illegal export of iron ore from the state in 2010.

"The court has granted us five-day custody of Lad to interrogate him in the case we registered against him after preliminary investigation found evidence of his role in illegally exporting iron ore from Belekeri port," a CBI spokesperson told IANS here.

State-run Belekeri port is in Uttara Kannada district on Karnataka's west coast, about 510 km from Bengaluru.

Sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Lad on Wednesday after he was summoned to their local office for questioning in the case.

Lad, 42, represents the Ballari assembly segment.

"Preliminary investigation revealed that Lad had exported the iron ore, extracted from Ballari mines, through Mallikarjun Shipping Company, a logistics firm," the spokesperson added.

CBI sources said Lad was booked for exporting about 15,000 tonnes of iron ore from Belekeri port.