Karnataka Lokatyukta justice Santosh Hegde submitted his "explosive" report on illegal mining in the state, estimating the losses to the excheqeur at Rs 16,085 crore.

He has named chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, his cabinet colleagues G. Karunakara Reddy, G Janardhana Reddy, B Sriramulu and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy among others for being party to stripping a significant part of the state's iron-ore reserves. According to Hegde, as much as five lakh metric tonnes of ore was illegally mined.

He said that the report contains documentary evidence against more than 100 companies involved in the scam. Elaborating on Yeddyurappa's role, Hegde said the the chief minister's family had received kickbacks from some of the others named in the report through cheques. An education trust run by Yeddyurappa's relative received Rs 10 crore from a company named in the report although there are no apparent connections between the two.

He said he "sincerely hopes" action is taken against those named in the 25,208-page report. On being asked on what action he had recommended gains the chief minister, the Lokayukta told the media that he had submitted a copy of the report to governor H R Bhardwaj and hoped that the latter would act in the matter. He clarified that various parties named in the report could be tried on laws ranging from forest act and mines and minerals (development and regulation) [MMDR] act to prevention of corruption act.

He slammed the illegal export and trading of ore and said that there were recommendations in the report against companies which have been found to have engaged in it.

The report also has other suggestions against export of ore, viz, granting of mining licenses only to companies which generate products after value addition to the raw ore. There is no logic in exports when both the centre and the state government stands to "gain thousands of crores" from tax revenue, he explained.

He said as many as 788 officials have been named or identified by desigation in the report.