IAS officer arrested in Karnataka mining case

The CBI has arrested senior IAS officer Shivalinga Murthy here for his alleged involvement in the multi-crore rupee mining scam in Karnataka and he has been remanded to 12 days judicial custody, an official said Sunday.

"The serving officer (Murthy) was arrested and remanded to judicial custody till Oct 3 after he surrendered before the special court late Saturday in the illegal mining case in Bellary district," a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) spokesperson told IANS here.

The premier investigation agency, which is probing the case on the Supreme Court directive, filed a charge sheet against Murthy May 30, 2012 for unauthorisedly issuing permits as the state's mines and geology director to Associated Mining Company (AMC) of mining baron and former state minister G. Janardhan Reddy during 2009-10.

Reddy has been jailed in Hyderabad since Sep 5, 2011 in connection with another illegal mining case in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh.

"Murthy has been specifically charged with issuing the mineral dispatch permit to AMC without the consent of the central government for transfer of rights after the mining firm was taken over by Reddy and his wife Lakshmi Aruna a decade ago. The permit was in violation of the Mines and Minerals Development & Regulation Act (MMDR), 1957," the official said.

Rejection of Murthy's anticipatory bail by the Karnataka High Court last week also paved the way for his formal arrest by the CBI.