Bail petition of mining scam accused Rajagopal dismissed

The court had last week reserved its orders on two petitions of Rajagopal, one for seeking bail and another for special prisoner status in the jail.

While refusing the application for bail, the court, however, accepted the request for granting him 'special class prisoner status'.

Rajagopal who is accused number three in the alleged illegal mining scam, was arrested by CBI on November 12 after the arrest of former Karnataka minister Janardhan Reddy and his brother-in-law and MD of the Obulapuram Mining Company B V Srinivasa Reddy, who are in judicial custody and lodged in the Chanchalguda Jail here.

Senior IAS officer Y Srilakshmi was arrested in this case yesterday and was today remanded in three-day CBI custody.

The central agency while opposing his bail application had earlier charged him with misusing his official position and misinterpreting the Mining and Mineral Acts to help OMC.

It had also contended that Rajagopal's release on bail at this juncture would hamper investigation and that public servants who helped the accused are still being identified.

"Rajagopal misused his official position to help OMC when he was holding the additional charge as the MD of the AP Mineral Development Corporation in 2005. It was at this time that he succeeded in getting the state government to issue a memo in favour of OMC in allotting the mines to the company," the CBI had earlier alleged.

Rajagopal prevented deserving applicants from getting a stretch of the mining lease of the 68.5 hectares in Obulapuram of Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh which was handed over to OMC, the CBI counsel had submitted.

He was also accused of getting his brother-in-law appointed as a director of OMC and helping the mining company "defraud" the exchequer.

However, Rajagopal's counsel had argued that the CBI had not made out any clear case against his client.