Apex court may consider conditional bail to Reddy

The Supreme Court on Friday indicated it could consider granting conditional bail to mining baron and former Karnataka minister G Janardhana Reddy in an illegal mining case involving the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC).

A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice H L Dattu asked Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, representing the CBI, to tell the court by December 15 the conditions on which the petitioner could be granted bail.

“Let the CBI file its response telling us the conditions, we will consider the matter,” the bench, also comprising Justices N V Ramana and A K Sikri, said on a plea made by senior advocate Dushyant Dave for release of Reddy on any condition, deemed appropriate, by the court.

Appearing for Reddy, Dave submitted that he had been in jail for over 39 months and 23 days. He submitted that the CBI had filed its third charge sheet. He said that the bail plea of the petitioners could be considered in view of his poor health and other reasons.
The court had in July said that it would consider Reddy’s bail if the trial against him was not completed within six months. Reddy had approached the apex court challenging a 2013 order of the High Court of Karnataka rejecting his bail petition.

The petitioner and his brother-in-law B V Srinivas Reddy, who is the managing director of OMC, were arrested by the CBI on September 5, 2011, from Ballari and brought to Hyderabad. He and others are on trial in five other cases.

In the OMC case, the company is accused of changing mining lease boundary markings and indulging in illegal mining in the Ballari Reserve Forest area, spread over Ballari and Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.