'Do you have Bellary minister's permission?'

BANGALORE: Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde is a hurt man. Ever since the day he indicted the government and put in his papers, a sustained slanderous campaign has been unleashed against him. "The Chief Minister says there is no illegal mining. But around four months back, when one of my officers went to Hospet to investigate, a 'VIP' called him up and asked: 'Do you have the permission of the Bellary district in-charge Minister?'"

Detailing the sequence of events that led to the officer landing up in Hospet, Justice Hegde said: "I sent the officer with my personal gunman after permission from the DG IGP (Ajai Kumar Singh). When the officer did the recce and wanted to file a case, the local forest official refused, the inspector too refused while the then Bellary SP said that he would look into the case.''

In fact, instead of filing the case, the inspector called up a 'VIP' and handed the phone to the Lokayukta officer.

"'Did you come to Bellary with prior permission of the district in charge Minister? Who has sent you?', the 'VIP' asked my officer. He then threatened him that he would have to face the consequences,'' the Lokayukta said.

He refused to name the 'VIP'.

The inspector, Justice Hegde said, told the officer that a case under the SC/ST Act would be filed against him.

Justice Hegde also said that the scam at the Belekeri port could run into thousands of crores. "Initially, it was estimated that around 5 lakh tonnes of ore went missing from the port. During investigation, the Karwar Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) found out that around 35 lakh tonnes of ore had been exported illegally." Justice Hegde said that it was feared that the illegally exported ore could have been in the range of 50 lakh tonnes.

"In that case, the scam runs into Rs 2,500 crore," he added.

The Karwar DCF, R Gokul, was investigating the case on the directions of the Lokayukta and had come in Minister of Ports and Inland Water Transport Krishna J Palemar's crosshairs.

It was the harassment faced by Gokul that made Justice Hegde quit his post. Justice Hegde hoped that his resignation would save Gokul further persecution.