Koppal: Denying that he was indulging in politics of hate, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah asserted on Thursday that he had nothing to do with the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the illegal mining case against state Janata Dal (Secular) chief H.D. Kumaraswamy.

“The law will take its own course. Former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde looked into the alleged illegalities in the Janatakal Mining case and his report was referred to SIT for detailed investigation. The Supreme Court too has directed SIT to probe the case after vacating a lower court's stay order. I have nothing to do with it, “he told reporters in Basapur, responding to Mr Kumaraswamy's claim that the state government had raked up the case to send him to prison and silence his voice against it. Asked about the delay in recovering the losses suffered by the state due to illegal mining from the miners in question, he declared that his government would not let anyone get away scot free and would do its best to recover the loss caused to the exchequer.

The department of mines and geology has issued notices to several exporters, including BJP MLAs Anand Singh and B. Nagendra, for illegal export of iron ore, asking them to repay the loss of Rs 134 crore they have caused to the state government. Although the deadline given was April 5, none of them have paid up as yet.