Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, May 16: Senior IAS officer Ganga Ram baderiya, principal secretary in the state revenue department, was arrested by the special investigation team(SIT) of the state Lokayukta on Monday May 15. On being produced before the judge, he was remanded to police custody for helping investigation till May 18.
Baderiya has been accused of accepting bribe and permitting Jantakal Enterprises to illegally transport iron ore. Baderiya, a 1989 batch IAS officer, happens to be the first ever IAS officer from the state to have been arrested by the SIT investigating illegal mining scam. In the past, retired IAS officers, Shameem Banu and Shivalinga Murthy, had been arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation.
During the Lokayukta investigation when Justice Santosh Hegde was its chief, had investigated illegal mining. The report of the probe had mentioned about illegal iron ore transportation conducted by Jantakal Enterprises owned by miner, Vinod Goel. Baderiya has mentioned that the then chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy, had permitted renewal of mining licence to Jantakal Enterprises and also iron ore transportation. It is said that Kumaraswamy might face problems in this case. However, SIT sources say that so far Kumaraswamy's name has not cropped up in its investigation.
The Lokayukta probe report had said that Baderiya told the investigation team that the then chief minster and his office had brought lot of pressure on him to accord permission to the said company within two hours. The officer also told the team that suspended police officer from Maharashtra, Daya Nayak, Vinod Goel, Darshan Goel and Vijayakumar were pursuing the issue actively.
Kumaraswamy had been arrested in August 2 015 relating to giving mining permission to Sai Venkateshwara Minerals, also owned by Vinod Goel. The Lokayukta special court had later granted bail to him. SIT officials had found that a cheque for Rs 10 lac issued by Vinod Goel had been credited into the account of Gagan Baderiya, son of Ganga Ram Baderiya.
The officials had accused Baderiya of issuing permission to transport ore on the basis of a fake no objection certificate purported to have been issued by the department of forest and environment. On the basis of this permission, the company had illegally transported 1.70 lac tonnes of ore before range forest officer of Chitradurga found that the no objection letter was fake, and thereafter filed case in Chikkajajur police station. Goel succeeded in bringing stay order from high court against investigation against him. By the time the stay order was vacated in 2014, the issue had been entrusted to SIT. SIT had arrested Goel in June 2015.