The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Karnataka Congress MLA Satish Krishna Sail on Tuesday in connection with a money laundering case linked to the alleged illegal export of iron ore from the Belekeri port in Ankola, the agency said.
Satish Krishna Sail, who represents the Karwar-Ankola Assembly constituency, is the second Congress MLA to be arrested in Karnataka in the last 20 days. Earlier, K C Veerendra Puppy, MLA for Chitradurga, was arrested in a case of illegal online and offline betting.
ED raided premises linked to Satish Krishna Sail on August 13 and 14 after he was convicted by a Bengaluru court under the Prevention of Corruption Act. He is accused of illegal export of iron ore fines.
ED said that its investigation revealed Satish Krishna Sail, in collusion with other business entities and Belekeri port officials, had illegally exported iron ore fines (particles) weighing nearly 1.25 lakh metric ton—which were under the forest department’s orders of seizure—between April 19, 2010, and June 10, 2010.
“The total value of the illegal exports carried out by Satish Krishna Sail through this company was Rs 86.78 crore,” ED said in a statement.
The August 13 and 14 raids resulted in the seizure of Rs 1.41 crore from Satish Krishna Sail’s home and Rs 27 Lakh from the office premises of M/s Sri Lal Mahal Ltd. Further, gold weighing 6.75 kg in the form of jewellery or bullion was also seized from a bank locker of Sail’s family, ED said in the statement.
Bank accounts of accused people and entities—M/s Shree Mallikarjun Shipping Pvt Ltd, Satish Krishna Sail, M/s Ashapura Minechem Ltd, etc—containing Rs 14.13 crore have been frozen during the search operations, which also revealed incriminating evidence in the form of documents, emails, and other records, according to ED.