The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday night arrested Karnataka Congress MLA from Karwar, Satish Krishna Sail, in connection with an ongoing money laundering case pertaining to illegal export of seized iron ore from Belekeri port in 2010.
The Congress MLA, arrested by ED's Bengaluru unit, will be produced before the court on Wednesday, ANI reported.
Sail had appeared before the ED on Tuesday. He was arrested the same evening after he was questioned by ED sleuths for several hours.
The ED had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) based on the conviction order by the special court in the case and raided premises linked to Sail and his business partners on August 13 and 14, earlier this year, according to a report by The Hindu.
The ED had claimed that the Congress MLA had exported 1.25 lakh tonnes of iron ore during April-June, 2010, which were already under the orders of seizure of the Forest Department, Ankola. “The total value of the illegal exports carried out by Satish Krishna Sail, was ₹86.78 crore,” the ED said in a statement earlier.
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar questioned the arrest of MLA Satish Sail and said, "What was the need to arrest Satish Sail? They are targeting only Congress MLAs. They are going out of their way to target us."
Officials privy to the development told ANI that Sail had been "avoiding summons" prior to his appearance.
(With inputs from ANI)
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