24.9.11

Reddy probe update



The Supreme Court on Friday decided to ask the CBI to probe the illegal iron ore mining empire of the politically connected Reddy brothers spanning Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. A bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and Swatanter Kumar sought a status report of the ongoing CBI probe relating to Obulapuram illegal mining on the Andhra Pradesh side. It issued notice to the agency to investigate the alleged linkage with illegal mining in Karnataka’s Bellary district. The apex court’s environmental panel, Central Empowered Committee (CEC), through amicus curiae Shyam Divan, said the committee suspected that the Reddys illegally mined iron ore from Bellary and then showed it to be a produce from Andhra Pradesh’s Obulapuram mines and exported it. The CEC’s report, compiled by its secretary M K Jiwrajka, indicated that former Karnataka tourism minister G Janardhana Reddy, who was also minister in charge of Bellary, encouraged blatant illegal mining after transferring the mining lease of Associated Mining Company (AMC) adopting dubious means. Janardhana Reddy, arrested in Bellary on September 5, is now in jail. Explaining a part of the report, amicus curiae ADN Rao told the bench that the mined iron ore was illegally transferred to the AP side and then routed to Visakhapatnam and other ports. “That is precisely what we want the CBI to investigate,” the bench said and asked attorney general G E Vahanvati to assist the court in the matter on September 30 to draw the outline for a CBI probe into the illegal mining in Bellary.

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