Bangalore, Oct 19 (IANS): Steel major JSW Steel Ltd Thursday denied hatching a criminal conspiracy to cause Rs.890-crore loss to the exchequer two days after the CBI filed a chargesheet against it and others in a graft case related to the multi-crore mining scam in the state.
"There is no basis for such a conspiracy to cause the assumed loss to the Karnataka government," the allegedly scam-hit company said in a statement here.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation revealed that the company and its subsidiary (South West Mining Ltd) had given Rs.20 crore as bribe to Prerna Education Trust, run by the kin of former state chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, as a quid pro quo for not insisting the recovery of Rs.890 crore from Vijayanagar Minerals Ltd, a joint venture between JSW and the state-run Mysore Minerals Ltd (MML).
The company issued the statement without being served the chargesheet that the CBI filed in the trial court here Tuesday against Yeddyurappa, his kin and others in the bribery case.
The CBI registered a criminal case against Yeddyurappa and the other accused on the directive of the Supreme Court May 11 under the various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and the Karnataka Land (restriction on) Transfer Act.
The chargesheet was filed against Yeddyurappa, his two sons B.Y. Raghavendra, B.Y. Vijayendra, son-in-law R.N. Sohan Kumar, their Shimoga-based Prerna Education Trust, former state Muzrai minister Krishnaiah Shetty and six mining firms, including the Bellary-based JSW Steels Ltd.
Raghavendra is a BJP Lok Sabha member from Yeddyurappa's home town Shimoga, about 260 km from here.
The other accused are JSW Steels vice-chairman Sajjan Jindal, its chief executive Vinod Nowal, senior vice-president Vikash Sharma, Anil Sood of South West Mining Company (a joint subsidiary of JSW), Srikant Shetty of Real Technical Solution Ltd, Muralidhar Dash of Jai Bharat Technical Services Ltd and Vivekananda Kulkarni of Industrial Techno Manpower Supply and Services Ltd.
The company also assured its stakeholders that the CBI chargesheet had no basis, as MML did not seek the loss amount from it since a decade.
As part of the conspiracy, the CBI said in a statement Tuesday, that Yeddyurappa's kin had also bought a government land near Bangalore for Rs.40 lakh by violating various laws and sold it to JSW Steel and South West Mining at a whopping Rs.20 crore when its guidance value was a mere Rs.1.5 crore.