LONDON: Lokayukta’s sensational report on illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri port putting 24 officers including two captains of the dockyard and Adani Enterprises, Ahmedabad, in the dock over bribery, seems to have bombed!
An inquiry by a retired judge into the bribery charge – the 24 officers being bribed by Adani Enterprises to facilitate ore export to different countries through cargo ships, has absolved the officers including a former chief minister’s son-in-law, triggering a debate on whether a mountain was made out of molehill in the case.
The state government had initiated an inquiry based on Lokayukta report (part-II) on July 27, 2011. Justice N Santosh Hegde was Lokayukta then. The government had appointed a retired judge, MN Gadag, to conduct the inquiry against 24 officers, and the legal proceedings had begun in December 2013.
After two years, the inquiry commission submitted its report in December 2015, clearing all the officers of charges levelled against them. The government accepted the same in June and recently absolved 24 officers of the bribery charges. This comes as a big relief to Adani Enterprises, which the Lokayukta report had named prominently in its report levelling charges of bribery.
