Eighteen people including Karwar MLA (independent) Satish Sail were chargesheeted by CBI today in a case relating to alleged illegal export of iron ore from Belikeri port in Karnataka.
"Mr Sail and 17 others involved in Belekeri illegal ore scam, have been chargesheeted," a CBI official told PTI here.
The accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and trespass, under Prevention of Corruption Act, the official said.
CBI had earlier arrested four MLAs - Anand Singh (BJP), B Nagendra and Satish Sail, both independents, and Suresh Babu of BSR Congress headed by former minister B Sriramulu, a close aide of mining baron and former minister Janardhana Reddy, in connection with the scam.
The illegal export of iron ore from Belikeri port in Karnataka's Uttara Kannada district was exposed by former Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde, who in his report, had said 7.74 million tonnes of iron ore were illegally exported between 2006-2007 and 2010-11, causing huge loss to the exchequer.
CBI has been investigating the case on the order of the Supreme Court which had set up the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) to study the issue.
