SIT's meticulous planning led to Reddy's arrest

It was a meticulously planned operation by the Lokayukta Special Investigation Team (SIT) on mining, which led to the arrest of former minister Janardhana Reddy on Friday.

For six weeks, the SIT kept a close watch on Reddy’s movements after he went into hiding, managing to secure bail in all the cases from the Lokayukta special court. The SIT had registered a total of 13 FIRs against Reddy in connection with the cases based on the Lokayukta report part-2. Reddy had obtained regular anticipatory bail in two cases while getting the protection of interim anticipatory bail in the remaining 11 cases.

When he went into hiding, the SIT filed an application recently seeking cancellation of the bail granted to him over two months ago. Even as the application was being heard, the SIT officials received a tip-off that Reddy had submitted an application before a CBI special court in Hyderabad citing health issues owing to an accident in Maharashtra. The application also had a report by the Lonavala police near Pune in Maharashtra.

On the other hand, the Lokayukta special court had rejected the applications for anticipatory and interim anticipatory bail filed by Reddy’s man Friday Mehfooz Ali Khan. Though the court had directed him to appear before the SIT within 24 hours, Ali too went into hiding.

On Friday, however, the SIT caught up with Reddy at the CBI office where he had to appear for attendance as part of the bail condition imposed by the Supreme Court.
After Reddy was arrested, Ali surrendered before the SIT.

When Reddy was produced before the court, his counsel C H Hanumantharaya said the SIT had deliberately registered the FIR on Friday so that Reddy cannot file an application under Section 438 of the CrPC for anticipatory bail. “This court had granted anticipatory bail in all the cases. In order to circumvent this, the SIT has registered the FIR today after securing him. Moreover, the remand application states that the accused was arrested to know the conspiracy and the information about unknown officials involved in the conspiracy. Therefore, it does not warrant police custody or judicial custody. The court may consider the interim bail application of the accused. The case registered also overlaps with the one registered by the CBI in Hyderabad,” Hanumantharaya said.

However, Special Public Prosecutor for the SIT, C Govindan, countered it by saying that the case had not overlapped.

He stated that Reddy had hatched the conspiracy with Black Gold Iron Ore Mines and Minerals.