Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar got kickbacks from Kolkata based coal firm: Yeddyurappa

Bengaluru: State BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa claimed on Saturday that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Energy Minister, D.K. Shivakumar had received kickbacks from a Kolkata based company, EMTI, to pay its coal mining penalty of Rs. 447 crore to the Centre although it was under no obligation to do so.

Releasing documents to back his claims, Mr Yeddyurappa alleged that both men had looted public money to pay the penalty through the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL).

“Siddaramaiah received a huge commission from the Kolkata based company to do this,” he charged, adding that he would write to the Centre to have the matter investigated by the CBI and also send the documents to Congress president, Sonia Gandhi and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjuna Kharge.

Explaining the “scam” he said the KPCL entered into an agreement with EMTI on February 13, 2002 and formed a joint venture company called KECML to take over a coal mining block being auctioned by the UPA government at the Centre. When the Supreme Court cancelled coal mining blocks on August 25, 2014 , the mining block allotted to KECML was also cancelled and it was asked to pay a penalty of Rs. 295 per tonne of coal.

But when on October 4, 2013, the Chandapura district collector directed KECML to pay Rs. 432.95 crore as penalty to the Centre, it refused , and on December 31, 2014, the KPCL paid Rs. 110.43 crore as penalty instead.

And despite the matter pending before the Supreme Court, the KPCL paid another Rs. 337.76 crore towards the penalty on March 16 this year, he recalled.

Responding to his allegations, Mr Shivakumar said he was open to a CBI investigation. " But Mr. Yeddyurappa is becoming a laughing stock by making such baseless allegations. Neither the CM nor I have done anything illegal in this case. KPCL paid the penalty as we are paying a very big amount for purchase of coal. This was done to avoid loss to the state exchequer,” he said.