A court for elected representatives in Bengaluru held Karwar’s Congress MLA, Satish Sail, and five others guilty Thursday in the Rs 250-crore Belekeri port scam of 2011. Special judge Gajanana Bhat directed CBI to take all six convicts into custody. The scam involved theft and export of iron ore seized from Belekeri port in Uttara Kannada district. The iron ore was seized during investigations into illegal iron ore mining in Karnataka between 2006-07 and 2010-11.
Several cases were registered in connection with the scam and the special court found the suspects guilty in six of the cases. After the initial probe by Lokayukta, the case was transferred to CBI.