Congress leader and former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat was granted ex-parte interim bail by a local court on Monday in an illegal mining case from 2013. He had appeared before a Special Investigation Team looking into the case. He was allowed to go after furnishing a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh set by the Panaji District and Sessions Court, PTI reported.

Reports of illegal mining in Goa date back to Kamat’s time as chief minister from 2007 to 2012. A 2012 report by the Justice MB Shah Commission stated that illegal mining to the tune of Rs 34,935 crore had taken place Goa between 2005 and 2012. The Congress had been in power in the state during the period.

Following the revelations of the Shah report, the Mines and Geology Department had filed a complaint in 2013, and an SIT had been formed by the succeeding Bharatiya Janata Party government. An FIR had been filed in August 2013 against politicians, including Kamat, mining department officials and mining firms. He had been questioned once in February 2014 in connection with the case.

Kamat was summoned again on April 18 but had failed to show up, following which, he was asked to present himself before the SIT on Monday.