Property worth Rs 21 cr seized; Satish Sail arrested, denied interim medical bail
PANAJI
A Goa-registered shipping company owned by Karnataka MLA Satish Sail has come under the Enforcement Directorate’s scanner, with the agency attaching assets worth Rs 21 crore over alleged illegal iron ore exports under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
In a statement issued on Saturday, ED Bengaluru Zonal Office stated it has provisionally attached Rs 21 crore worth immovable properties for the offence of illegal export of iron ore fines, belonging to the MLA Karwar, holding through M/s Shree Mallikarjun shipping Pvt Ltd (SMSPL), Goa.
The attached property, during the raid on November 6, includes 12,500 sq mtrs of Open Land situated in Chicalim Village, Mormugao, 16,850 sq mtrs of Agricultural property known as “Pedro Galle Cotta”, Mormugao, and Commercial Premises in Vasco. The MLA was subsequently arrested and his interim medical bail was also reject by the judiciary.
“As per LEA Chargesheet, the forest Department Officials had visited Belekeri Port on 15/03/2010 and found a large quantity of iron ore within the port area and during their enquiries they found that certain iron ore stocks were without valid permits & passes issued by the Department of Mines & Geology and Forest Department. Accordingly, they had issued a Mahazar, seizing around 5 Lakh MT of iron ore fines,” it said.
Earlier, ED conducted a search action under section 17 of the Prevention of Money
Laundering Act, 2002 in the states of Karnataka, Goa, Delhi and Mumbai covering 15 premises and arrested Sail while also seized cash and gold worth around Rs 8 crore from the legislator.
Later Sail was granted interim medical bail which was cancelled by the Special Court on November 7.
“The accused had claimed to have purchased seized iron ore fines at Belekeri Port weighing approx 1.54631 lakh metric tons from various suppliers involved in trading of Iron ore. Subsequently, Sail in collusion with port conservator had exported the illegally procured seized iron ore to China through vessels like MV Columbia and MV Mandarin Harvest, through layering by opening one more company in Hongkong,” the ED said.
