Karnataka not in favour of CBI probe into illegal mining: CM

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa Thursday hinted his government was not in favour of seeking CBI investigation into alleged illegal mining, which the opposition parties have been insisting on.

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa Thursday hinted his government was not in favour of seeking CBI investigation into alleged illegal mining, which the opposition parties have been insisting on.

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"We are not ready for CBI probe. We apprehend that if we seek it, it might be misused", he told the state assembly during the debate on illegal mining issue.

He said the on-going probe by the Lokayukta into illegal mining would continue.

JD(S) legislature group leader H D Revanna insisted the government should entrust the matter to CBI.

Intervening, Minister for Tourism G Janardhana Reddy, one of the mining magnates of Bellary and against whom allegations of illegal mining have been made, displayed a copy of a 2006 newspaper clipping in which former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, the father of Revanna, has opposed CBI probe into the Rs 150-crore bribery charges levelled against the then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy.

Reddy had then made the bribery allegations against Kumaraswamy, brother of Revanna, during the rule of JD(S)-BJP coalition government.