Singh was elected from Vijayanagara in the mineral-rich Bellary district, about 330 km from Bangalore, on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket in the May election.
Singh was tourism minister for eight months from September 2012 to May 2013 during the BJP's third government led by Jagadish Shettar.
According to the FIR (first information report) the CBI had filed, Singh's mining firm (Vaishnavi Minerals) had allegedly supplied around 1.3 lakh tonnes of the illegally extracted iron ore for export from the port between January 2009 and May 2010 when the BJP ruled the state.
