Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde on Friday denied any wrongdoing in grant of mining leases during the tenure of Mr S.M. Krishna as chief minister.
At a meet-the-press programme organised by the Bangalore Press Club, he said, “We have not found any evidence for illegality in granting of mining licence during that period. The encroachment by miners was not part of our investigation.” Referring to revenue minister K. Reddy’s statement that his name was misquoted by the Lokayukta, Justice Hegde said he would give fitting reply if Mr Reddy wrote him a letter in this regard. “We have documents to name any person in the mining report. If he writes me a letter, I will reply by enclosing relevant documents,” he said, recalling an incident when a mother called him around 2 am. “It was a distress call from Bagalkot where a child was not admitted in the hospital. “When I spoke to the doctors, the child was given immediate treatment.”
This was a very satisfying moment,” he said.