New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday (September 9) arrested Congress MLA from Karnataka's Karwar constituency, Satish K. Sail in Bengaluru over alleged money laundering charges.

The arrest was made when Sail was attending an inquiry at the ED office, reported IANS, citing sources.

Earlier, on August 13 and 14, the ED had conducted raids at the residence of Sail in connection with illegal iron ore export charges.

The agency had said that it had detected illegal property, cash, and jewels, with ED sleuths seizing a huge quantity of cash and gold. The search operations, targeting properties owned by the legislator were conducted in Karwar, Goa, Mumbai, and Delhi.

Sail is the third Congress legislator to be arrested by central agencies in recent times. Earlier, Chitradurga MLA K.C. Veerendra and Dharwad Rural MLA Vinay Kulkarni were also arrested.

On October 26, 2024, a Special MP/MLA Court had handed seven years imprisonment to Sail in six cases relating to the Belekeri illegal iron ore export case. The court had also imposed a fine of Rs 44 crore on him.

However, on December 21, 2014, the Karnataka high court had suspended his conviction. The court had also directed authorities not to notify the byelection to the Karwar Assembly constituency till the outcome of his appeal and had also barred Sail from attending the assembly session.

A case in connection with the illegal iron ore export case was lodged in 2010, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted a charge sheet later in the matter. Sail was named as the second accused in the first case, IANS reported.

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