Krishna, Ex-CMs face probe in mining scam

BANGALORE: The Lokayukta special court on Saturday admitted a private case filed in connection with illegal mining against three former chief ministers of the state, including External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh and H D Kumaraswamy, both members of Parliament presently.  The judge, N K Sudheendra Rao, also ordered the anti-corruption agency’s Additional Director General of Police, Sathyanarayana Rao, to investigate the case and file an investigation report on or before January 6, 2012.  The judge who had reserved the order on admissibility of the case on Friday, took up the case involving charges of misuse of power and corruption on Saturday and referred the same to the Lokayukta police under Section 156/3 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).  Social worker Abraham T Joseph had filed the case alleging the three former chief ministers besides over 10 bureaucrats of allowing illegal mining in the state causing huge loss to the state exchequer.Expressing happiness over the court’s order, Abraham said the efforts and intentions were justified and termed the decision as “victory for the people”.  Other accused in the case are former directors of Mines and Geology Dr Basappa Reddy and Gangaram Baderiya, IAS; former managing directors, Mysore Minerals Limited, V Umesh, I R Perumal, K S Manjunath, D S Aswath, Mahendra Jain,all IAS, and Jija Madhavan Hari Singh, IPS (Retired); and deputy general managers, Mysore Minerals Ltd, K Srinivas, M Ramappa and Shankaralingaiah.