JOIN USFormer minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy and two legislators were today granted conditional bail by a CBI Court here in connection with alleged illegal export of iron ore from Belikeri Port in Karnataka.
"They - Janardhana Reddy, Anand Singh and Suresh Babu - got bail in one of the cases (Belikeri illegal mining case)," a CBI official told PTI here. However, all the three will stay in jail because they have to get bail in two more cases, the official added.
BJP MLA and former Karnataka Minister Singh and BSR Congress MLA Suresh Babu were arrested last year in connection with the case.
Apart from Singh and Babu, two other Karnataka legislators - B Nagendra and Satish Sail (both independents), are cooling their heels in jail.
The central agency had summoned Singh for questioning in September, but he had failed to turn up and fled reportedly to Singapore from where he filed an anticipatory bail plea before the CBI court on medical grounds, fearing arrest.
Thereafter CBI arrested Singh's aide and employee Muthiyala Shivakumar on September 23. Babu is a nephew of Sriramulu, a close associate of former minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy, lodged in jail Parapanna Agrahara Prison.
Babu is also named as an accused in the cash-for-bail scam in which a CBI judge was allegedly bribed for granting bail to Janardhana Reddy, prime accused in the Obulapuram Mining Company scam probed by the CBI.
The illegal export from Belekeri port in Uttara Kannada District was exposed by former Karnataka Lokayukta N Santosh Hegde, who in his report, had said 7.74 million tonnes of iron ore were illegally exported between 2006-07 and 2010-11, causing huge loss to the exchequer.