Three years in prison but Gali Janardhan Reddy’s troubles are only growing

Bellary: Mining czar and former minister, Gali Janardhan Reddy has now spent three years in prison after his arrest for alleged illegal mining by officers of the Hyderabad branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation, who swooped down on his Bellary home early morning on September 5, 2011.

While he was taken into custody then for alleged irregularities by his Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), the Supreme Court later tightened the noose around him by ordering a CBI probe into his Associated Mining Company (AMC) in Karnataka and the illegal export of iron ore from the Belekeri port.
He has been chargesheeted in the OMC and AMC cases besides four more cases related to Belekeri.

Though the CBI has sent Letters Rogatory to the Man of Isle, British Virgin Islands, Switzerland and Singapore seeking their consent to investigate his assets stashed in foreign banks, it hasn’t made much progress on this front. The Enforcement Directorate has meanwhile attached his properties worth nearly Rs 850 crore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on the CBI’s findings in the OMC and AMC cases.

With the Economic Offences Wing of the CBI, Chennai expected to interrogate him in relation to cases against 22 ore exporters who operated from Belekeri port and the anti-corruption bureau of the Andhra Pradesh government approaching the Supreme Court last week for cancellation of the bail granted to Janardhan Reddy and six others by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in the infamous ‘cash for bail’ scam, his troubles only seem to be growing.

The only reprieve the mining baron has had in the last three years is the bail granted to him in the AMC case by the CBI special court in Bengaluru last month. But not proving as lucky in other cases against him, he remains behind bars.