JOIN USAP officials conspired with OMC: CBI
In the 10-page remand note submitted to the designated court on Monday, CBI has said that between 2007 and 2010 there was no mining activity in the 68.5 hectares of OMCPL leased out by the Andhra Pradesh Government during former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s (YSR) tenure.
The CBI had the area and the iron ore mine scrutinised by experts from NMDC, Indian Bureau of Mines and other agencies, besides satellite images, photographs from the National Remote Sensing Centre using equipments like 3-D-terrestrial laser scanner to assess its origin and value.
The reports said that of the 5, 48,895.291 tonnes allegedly excavated, only 40,387.266 tonnes belonged to the area in question and the rest were excavated outside the lease area.
Investigations revealed that government officials conspired with OMCPL to obtain the aforesaid lease and the same was obtained with the sole purpose of justifying their illegal mining activities.
The OMCPL was mining in some other area and bringing the same (iron ore) to the stock yards of this mine and transporting under the permits issued by ADMG, Anantapur.
Both the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court and the Lokayukta of Karnataka had brought out these facts.
The Lokayukta could not do anything as the land was in Andhra Pradesh region, but the Supreme Court had directed the CBI to inquire.
Largesse
The AP government, then under YSR as chief minister, remained silent and allowed the mining company to procure a stay on CBI inquiry from a single judge bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
However, the subsequent K Rosaiah Government allowed the CBI to file a writ petition to get the stay vacated and proceed with its investigations.
CBI Superintendent R M Khan said in the special affidavit before the lower court on Monday that during its inquiry the CBI examined 2,530 documents, 112 iron ore samples to ascertain content of ferrous and collected statements from 85 witnesses.
The CBI report said that the YSR government had decided to allot 68.52 ha to OMCPL on August 18 of 2007 and the deal was executed the very next day, i.e., in 24 hours.
However, a similar grant of 93 ha to state government -run APNMDC is still pending.
While seeking arrest and custody of both Gali Janardhana Reddy (owner) and B V Srinivas Reddy (MD) of OMCPL, the CBI said it wanted to ascertain the names of all public servants with whom they conspired to get the lease, to ascertain that how much money or commission was given to government servants, to ascertain source and exact place of illegal mining, to ascertain to whom illegal ore was sold, to whom the proceeds of illegal amounts were given and in what form.