CBI digs, seizes Reddy’s wealth
The CBI seized Rolls Royce, Range Rover, Land Rover, Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW and more than a dozen Scorpios and Bolero jeeps parked in the premises of mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy’s home office home-office Kuteeram.
The investigation agency also conducted searches at Parijatha Apartments, the residence of Janardhan Reddy in Bengaluru.
In Hyderabad, the CBI court for special cases remanded the duo to 15-day judicial custody minutes before the close of court timings. The special judge, Mr B. Naga Maruthi Sharma, posted the case to September 7.
Mentioning the seizures, the CBI deputy legal adviser, Mr B. Ravindranath, submitted to the court that the agency required custody to prevent them from tampering with evidence, and to probe Janardhan Reddy’s assets put at Rs 20,000 crore.
They were lodged at the Chanchalguda Central Jail later in the evening. Asked about more arrests in the case, Mr Lakshmi Narayana said the agency would think about it after gathering more evidence.
The arrests come nearly 21 months after the CBI, Hyderabad registered a case against the company on December 7, 2009 under various sections of IPC, the Prevention of Corruption Act, Indian Forest Act, Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act with regard to the alleged illegal mining.
According to a statement released by the CBI on Monday, the High Court of Andhra Pradesh on December 14, 2009, granted an interim stay stalling the investigation and the orders were made absolute on June 14, 2010.
Following a writ appeal by CBI, a division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court ordered CBI to limit itself to the illegal mining by the firms.
The High Court directed the CBI not to probe into the boundary disputes till the same were decided by the Committee constituted following the orders of the Supreme Court.
After the stay was vacated, CBI at Hyderabad began investigation of the case and so far collected about 1,530 documents and 112 iron ore samples and examined around 85 witnesses/ suspects.
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