 |
Sept. 5: A powerful former Karnataka minister, indicted by the Lokayukta in the Bellary mining scam that unseated then chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, today found himself behind bars in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in a different mining case.
Gali Janardhana Reddy was arrested by the CBI from his home in Bellary this morning, brought to Hyderabad and put in 14 days’ jail custody on charges of illegal iron-ore mining and forest encroachment in Andhra.
The 45-year-old BJP lawmaker, one of the three famed Reddy brothers who rule the mining scene in Bellary, was removed as minister after the Lokayukta indictment. That report, however, is pending with Karnataka’s BJP government.
Keeping the ex-minister company in Chanchalguda jail is B.V. Srinivas Reddy, managing director of Janardhana’s Obulapuram Mining Corporation, who too was arrested from Bellary and driven to Hyderabad.
On Wednesday, the CBI will seek the duo’s custody. Janardhana will seek bail from Andhra Pradesh High Court, PTI said quoting his brother Somasekhara from Bellary.
Before driving the duo to Hyderabad, the CBI sent decoy teams in different directions to avoid being attacked on the highway by the Bellary mining mafia’s henchmen, police sources said.
Earlier, in an early-morning raid on Janardhana’s mansion in Bellary, a CBI team from Hyderabad had seized Rs 4.5 crore in cash, about 30kg of gold jewellery and his personal helicopter “Rukmini”, sources said.
Another raid on his Bangalore home, Parijat, netted a laptop computer, 1,530 documents, 112 samples of iron ore, and a diary. The CBI froze Janardhana’s bank accounts, whose details were not released immediately.
The CBI has also taken custody of his fleet of luxury cars including a Maybach, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a custom-built bus. Sources confirmed that 85 close associates of the Reddy brothers were interrogated during the day.
Janardhana’s supporters blocked streets with burning tyres and organised protest marches in Bellary.
CBI officials also raided the yet-to-be-vacated ministerial bungalow of Janardhana’s close associate and former health minister B. Sriramulu, who quit as an MLA yesterday protesting his indictment in the Lokayukta mining report.
Sriramulu protested today’s arrests, accusing the Congress of misusing the CBI to barge into political rivals’ homes without regard for the privacy of women and children. He alleged the sleuths even searched the bag of Janardhana’s daughter.
When the CBI searched his bungalow in Bangalore, Sriramulu was in Mysore. He later visited the famous Chamundeshwari temple on the Chamundi Hills to seek divine intervention, saying: “Goddess Chamundeshwari will stand by me.”
Karnataka chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda termed the arrests “politically motivated”. His predecessor Yeddyurappa, himself accused in a land scam and the Bellary mining scandal, accused the Congress of “vendetta politics”.
The Karnataka Congress had called for a CBI probe into the Bellary mining scam that apparently robbed the exchequer of at least Rs 16,000 crore in a matter of months.
The demand found endorsement from former Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, whose report indicted Yeddyurappa, Janardhana, his brother and former minister G. Karunakara Reddy, Sriramulu and a host of politicians and 700-odd bureaucrats.
As for the Andhra case, the CBI had registered it on December 7, 2009, at the state government’s request following allegations of illegal mining, forest land grab and lease allotment in the state’s Anantpur district.