Special CBI Court, Hyderabad sentences Reddy, three others to seven years imprisonment

Hyderabad: A Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court has yesterday convicted former Karnataka Minister and present Gangavati MLA Gali Janardhan Reddy and three others in the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) illegal mining case.

The Principal Special Judge for CBI cases Judge T. Raghu Ram sentenced the convicts to seven years’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on each and Rs. 1 lakh fine on OMC.

Janardhan Reddy’s brother-in-law and Managing Director of OMC Srinivas Reddy and V.D. Rajagopal, the then Assistant Director of Mines and Geology and Mehafuz Ali Khan, Reddy’s Personal Assistant are the other convicted in the case.

Following the judgment, the CBI took Reddy and others into custody. Former Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy and former bureaucrat B. Krupanandam have been acquitted in the case.

Reddy, who was harbouring a political foothold again, had formed his own regional party Kalyana Rajya Pragati Paksha and had even won the 2023 Assembly elections from Gangavati Constituency in Koppal district. In March 2024, Reddy returned to his parent party BJP, after merging his party with the saffron party.

Reddy, who had already served close to four years in jail between 2011 and 2015 in Judicial Custody, till he was granted bail, brought to the notice of the Court about his previous jail term and his present status as elected representative, to evade the sentence. However, the Judge dismissed his plea, saying ‘the sentence could have been for 10 years. In fact, you deserve a life sentence.’

The judgement was delivered nearly 14 years after the CBI had filed a charge sheet against Reddy, the Accused No. 2 in the case and others, accusing them of tampering with mining lease boundary markings to facilitate mining illegally in Bellary Reserve Forest area on the Karnataka-Andhra                                                       Pradesh border.

The prosecution had argued that the illegal mining between 2007 and 2009 caused Rs. 884 crore loss to the exchequer.

The CBI had on Dec. 3, 2011 filed the first charge sheet and subsequently three supplementary charge sheets in the case had been filed against Reddy, who is also Director of the mining company, Srinivas Reddy, Rajagopal, late R. Linga Reddy and the OMC.

Senior IAS officer Y. Srilakshmi was discharged from the case by the Telangana High Court in November 2022.

CBI Public Prosecutor Inderjeet Santoshi and Assistant Public Prosecutor Vishnu Majji argued the case on behalf of the investigating agency.