Supreme Court allows Reddy to visit Ballari again

The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed mining baron and former minister G Janardhana Reddy to visit Ballari for five days to perform certain rituals as part of the first festival (Makara Sankranti) after the marriage of his daughter.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and R K Agrawal granted permission to Reddy to visit his daughter from January 12 to 16, “to perform the necessary rituals and participate in the first festival of his daughter after her marriage.”

“During his visit, he shall not, in any manner, try to influence any of the witnesses or the trial,” the bench said. This is the second time in recent months when the court has allowed Reddy to visit Ballari. The court had done so in November to enable him to perform his daughter’s marriage.

The court had then modified the conditions, imposed on January 21, 2015, while granting bail to him. Among the conditions was that he should not visit Ballari in Karnataka, and Anantapur and Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh.

The court had given bail to Reddy in an illegal mining case involving Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) as the CBI did not oppose his plea. The court had then directed Reddy to cooperate in the trial and appear before the CBI special court in Hyderabad trying the case. It ordered Reddy to furnish two sureties of Rs 10 lakh each as condition for bail.

Reddy and his brother-in-law B V Srinivas Reddy, managing director of OMC, were arrested by the CBI on September 5, 2011, from Ballari and brought to Hyderabad.

In the OMC case, the company was accused of changing mining lease boundary markings and indulging in illegal mining in the Ballari reserve forest, spread over Ballari and Anantapur districts.