Ashok Sadalagi found his name featured among those responsible for causing losses to the state exchequer in the leaked Lok Ayukta report on illegal mining.
Lok Ayukta superintendent of police, Bellary, Ashok Sadalagi, finds his name featured among those responsible for causing losses to the state exchequer in the leaked Lok Ayukta report on illegal mining. What is more, he is not the lone official within the Lok Ayukta to be named.
Sadalagi said, “I have produced all the necessary documents that higher officials needed; I have worked in time. Yet, my name figures in the report. This comes as a shock.”
When he took first assumed charge in 2008, illegal mining was hectic in Bellary. It was rumoured that officials, politicians and even those within the Lok Ayukta were involved.
An officer working in the same department as Sadalagi said, “All the officials in the department knew that he was supporting the illegal mining activity. The truth has only been documented now.”
Tapal Ganesh, an activist who has been working against illegal mining in Bellary, said, “The MBT mining company has been carrying on illegal mining, and exporting the iron ore in breach of proper procedure. I gave documentary evidence of all this to Sadalagi, but he just received it and kept it all in his drawer.”
Ganesh added that the official would secretly meet owners of mines. There were close associates of the miners with whom Sadalagi had meetings, on the sly. It was widely believed that the Lok Ayukta superintendent of police accepted bribes.
Activists said Sadalagi would accept documents from them, and claim that he was not the official concerned. He would promise to pass the documents to the right person, but would instead take them to owners of mines. Officials in the Lokayukta office in Bellary confirmed this as true.
Yeddyurappa cautious, won’t talk on phone
According to the sources, tourism minister G Janardhana Reddy is set to fly to Mauritius on Thursday, where chief minister BS Yeddyurappa is holidaying.
On Wednesday, after the report of the Lok Ayukta on illegal mining was leaked to the press, Reddy contacted the chief minister over the phone. Fearing that the phone lines might be tapped, Yeddyurappa reportedly instructed the minister to fly to Mauritius.
Reddy, along with Kampli MLA TH Suresh Babu, are expected to leave for Mauritius.
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