Illegal mining accused Reddy brothers under CBI custody

The central bureau of investigation Monday morning has arrested the key accused of Karnataka's illegal Mining case Gali Janardhana Reddy, one of the three powerful Reddy brothers of Bellary, his cousin brother Srinivas Reddy and Janardhana's brother-in-law after making raids on their residences.

The arrest of Reddys' came in the context of illegal mining case 2009 in which Janardhana's company Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) has been accused of illegal mining in the restricted forest area of Andhra Pradesh. Janardhana Reddy is the Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) of OMC while Srinivas Reddy is the Managing Director.

CBI is also looking for Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YSR Reddy's son Jagmohan Reddy in this context who has close relationship with Janardhana Reddy. It seems that CBI would soon try to arrest Jagmohan Reddy.

A large CBI team led by Joint Director V.V. Lakshminarayana today morning raided on Janardhana's residence at 6:00 a.m. and arrested the mining baron and powerful politician.

He is likely to be produced before the CBI court in Hyderabad in the afternoon.

Another team of C.B.I also raided Janardhana's Bangalore residence and seized some several incriminating documents.

According to media sources, the team has seized a laptop, mobile phone, four registers, a diary and a personal helicopter of Janardhana Reddy.

The powerful Janardhana Reddy, Srinivas Reddy and others were booked for criminal conspiracy, cheating and under various sections of mining and forests acts.

During the raids, the investigators also recovered Rs. 3 crore cash and 30 kg gold from Janardhana Reddy's house and Rs. 1.5 crore cash from Srinivas Reddy's house.

Janardhana Reddy founded the Obulapuram mining company in 2001 with the help of his brothers Karunakara and Somashekara, the co-owners of the company with the initial fund of Rs.10 lakhs only. The Reddy brothers became billionaires in just 10 years after kicking off this company.

The Reddy brothers are not only mining baron but also hold strong political influence in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Janardhana Reddy was tourism minister in the cabinet of B.S. Yeddyurappaa, his elder brother G. Karunakara was revenue minister while younger brother G. Somashekara is an assembly member from Bellary.

Former Lokaykta (Ombudsman) of Karnataka Santosh Hegde indicted Reddy Brothers and Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappaa that caused the demolition of the Yeddyurappaa's government in August 2011.

Former minister and very close to Reddy brothers, B Sreeramulu, who was also indicted by Santosh Hegde in his report, yesterday announced his resignation as an MLA over not having been inducted into the new Cabinet, sources said.