The High Court of Karnataka has upheld the 2016 order of the Special Court for CBI cases in discharging two retired IAS officers and the executives of a mining company in an illegal mining case.
Justice K. Somashekar passed the order while dismissing the revision petitions filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), challenging Special Court’s January 30, 2016 order of discharging them from all the charges.
The CBI had challenged the discharge of Rajendra Kumar Jain, managing director, and Ritesh Milapchand Jain, chief executive officer, of Deccan Mining Syndicate Pvt. Ltd., Ballari; N. Vishwanathan and Shameem Bhanu, both retired additional chief secretaries of the State government; S.P. Raju, retired deputy director, Mines and Geology Department; and Ramakant Y. Hullar, then circle inspector of police, Sandur police station.
The CBI had alleged that they were parties to a criminal conspiracy hatched in Bengaluru, Ballari, Hosapete, and other places during the period 1980-2010 to commit the offences of cheating, theft of iron ore, criminal trespass, changing the boundaries, and criminal misconduct by abuse of their official position.
However, the High Court said the Special Court “has rightly come to the conclusion that there are no sufficient materials/evidence against the accused persons to proceed further for framing of the charges and consequently, discharging them from the case.”
