Gali's bail plea hearing on Dec 28

The big question is whether the new year will prove lucky for Gali. The CBI Special Court on Friday has reserved its order on Gali’s bail petition to 28 December, following two days of intensive argument for and against granting bail to Gali Janardhana Reddy and his brother-in-law B V Srinivas Reddy.

The CBI’s argument was that bail to the accused at this juncture would hamper the investigation and that there was a threat to the lives of the main witnesses.

Gali’s counsels on Friday urged the court not to take into consideration the allegations of the CBI and to grant bail to the accused. The CBI has submitted a petition by the three main witnesses to the court, seeking police security and gun licence alleging threatening calls from Gali’s henchmen.

Gali’s senior counsel Umamaheswar Rao pointed out that one of the witnesses, Shantakumar is also a mining baron who has a business rivalry with OMC.

“Can we provide gun licenses to all the witnesses?” he asked the court. Srinivas Reddy’s counsel Surender Rao pleaded to the court that the allegations of threat were almost a year old and could not be linked to the bail plea.

However, the CBI counsel Ravindranath argued that there is every threat to the witnesses and a possibility of the accused influencing the witnesses is released on bail. Justice Naga Maruthi Sharma after hearing both sides for almost five hours on Friday reserved the order.

Earlier on Thursday Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran said “The matter (illegal mining) is very serious. Considering its seriousness, the Supreme Court has taken cognisance of illegal mining involving Reddys,” opposing the fresh bail pleas of Gali Janaradhan Reddy and his brother-in-law and OMC Managing Director Srinivas Reddy.

He alleged that “The OMC scam has resulted in a loss of Rs 5,100 crore to the national exchequer.”