Mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy was granted conditional bail by the Chanchalguda CBI court on Friday but the relief was short-lived as Karnataka CBI took him to custody and placed him in a Bangalore jail.
Reddy, who was jailed in connection with the illegal mining of iron ore by Obulapuram Mining Company, has been named accused number-2 in the Rs 5,800 crore scam. The Chanchalguda CBI court directed him to surrender his passport, provide two sureties and deposit Rs 5 lakh in bonds.
Though the respite came with the court accepting Reddy’s sixth petition after almost ten months of his arrest, Reddy was lodged in Parappana Agrahara jail in Bangalore in connection with another illegal mining case slapped on him by the Karnataka CBI.
Reddy was arrested, along with his brother in law and MD of OMC, Srinivas Reddy, in the wee hours of September 5, 2011 at his palatial residence in Bellary and was taken to Hyderabad. This is the second bail given in the OMC case by the CBI court after the bail to IAS officer Srilakshmi, which was later quashed by the High Court. Srilakhmi is back in the Chanchalguda Central Prison along with other accused in the case.
Interestingly, the designated court on Friday rejected her bail petition even as it granted conditional bail to Reddy.
Reddy’s advocate Rami Reddy told reporters that the judge granted bail on the grounds that the probes were completed. “However, he might have to remain in Bangalore jail till he gets bail from the CBI court in Bangalore,” he added. The scam had rocked the country with revelations that iron ore mined illegally in Karnataka was transported to AP ports allegedly with the help of Jaganmohan Reddy and that OMC in turn made investments in Jagan’s media empire.
