Hyderabad, September 06: The CBI has finally begun a crackdown on the Reddy brothers of Bellary. The agency on Monday arrested former Karnataka tourism minister and BJP MLA Janardhan Reddy and his brother-in-law Srinivasa Reddy. The two have been remanded to judicial custody in Hyderabad.
Janardhan Reddy, however, insisted that he in innocent. “The truth will prevail,” he said.
But the CBI believes it has finally nailed the mining mafia. In an early morning swoop, a 10 member CBI team raided premises of Janardan Reddy and his brother-in-law Srinivas Reddy in Bellary and Bangalore respectively, and arrested the duo under charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy, illegally mining and transporting iron ore and for damaging the forest cover on the Andhra-Karanataka border.
As much as 30 kg of gold and Rs 4.5 crore in cash (Rs 1.5 crore cash from Janardhana Reddy’s residence and Rs 3 crore cash from Srinivasa Reddy’s) was recovered by CBI along with other incriminating documents and hard disks.
The duo was immediately flown to Hyderabad and produced in court. They have also been charged under the Mines and Mineral Development Regulation Act as well as the Indian Forest Act and are now lodged in Chanchal Guda prison in the Andhra Pradesh capital.
“We will request the magistrate for 15-day police custody. The CBI can’t work on allegations, so we are gathering evidence. The priority is to gather evidence in the coming days,” said VV Laxminarayana, DIG, ACB Hyderabad while the duo were taken to the court.
But a Hyderabad special court has sent Janardhan and Srinivas Reddy to 14-day judicial custody. The CBI’s plea for police custody of the duo will be taken up on September 7, and once custody is granted, the CBI will start the process of interrogating the duo and collecting evidence.
Reddys have been arrested in a 2009 FIR, which was lodged after the Supreme Court-appointed central empowerment committee recommended action against Reddy-owned Obulampuram Mining Company.
Janardhana Reddy and his brothers Karunakara and Somasekhar Reddy own the Obulampuram Mining Corporation. Srinivasa Reddy is the managing director of of the company, which is owned by the former minister.
The Lokayukta report accused them of far more serious crimes than just accepting a bribe. The report says they have actually smuggled out iron ore from Karnataka and the Rs 215 crore money trail has led to accounts in the British Virgin Islands and the Isle of Man.
The CBI officials said they already have examined 85 witnesses in this case. More than 1500 pages of evidence as well as over 100 iron ore samples collected makes CBI confident of a strong case. But that also means that not just Janardhan Reddy, but other big political players – from Andhra and Karnataka – could also feel the CBI heat in the next few days.
-PTI