Karwar, September 16: After filing the First Information Report (FIR) against 13 iron ore mining companies, stevedoring agents and exporters in Bangalore on Friday, officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday conducted simultaneous raids at Karwar, Belekeri, and Yellapur of Uttar Kannada district on Saturday.
They raided the offices of Adani Enterprises, Mallikarjuna Shipping Company, Dream Logistics and Company, Salgaonkar Mining Company and Rajamahal Silks .
According to the sources, the raids were conducted at 7.30 a.m. The team members arrived in a private vehicle from Belgaum.
The CBI personnel verified the bank documents and other documents belonging to the exporters and the stevedoring agents and seized some of them.
The raid was expected by these mining and export company officers, directors and owners after the CBI filed the FIR on Friday in the CBI Court in Bangalore as per the directions of the Supreme Court.
Raids were also conducted on the houses of Satish Sail, owner of Mallikarjuna Shipping Company at Sadashivagad in Karwar; R.P. Naik, manager of Salgoankar Company in Belekeri; and Vivek Hebbar, director of Dream Logistics and Company in Yellapur.
Six members of the CBI team raided the house of Mr. Sail in Karwar. The team had brought a bank officer with it to assist them to verify the bank accounts. Thorough searches were made in the house and offices of Mr. Sail in Karwar and Belekeri.
Sources said raids were a mere formality to gather information before the arrest of the owners of these companies because major part of the investigation into the theft of iron ore in Belekeri port had been completed by the CID and it had seized and analysed the documents.
The bank statements, sale and purchase bills, lorry trip sheets and other documents had already been seized by the CID and Lokayukta officials during previous raids in Belekeri and Karwar. So, the CBI had to rely on those documents which were submitted to the Ankola Court with the charge sheet submitted against the several companies in Belekeri ore theft case.
The scrutiny of the documents was in progress till Saturday evening.
Last week, the Supreme Court, after studying the CEC report, had ordered CBI inquiry into the export of iron ore seized by the Lokayukta in March 2010.
It had also ordered probe into the transportation and export of illegally mined iron ore in Bellary district from Belekeri port.
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