Ballari: Beleaguered mining baron and former BJP minister Gali Janardhan Reddy who was arrested on Sunday after marathon questioning by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police in connection with a multi-crore Ponzi scam case, has gone behind bars for the fourth time in the past seven years.
Reddy, the alleged kingpin of the multi-crore iron mining scam in Ballari, was earlier behind bars for about 41-months or almost three and a half years. The son of a police head constable, he rose to become a political heavyweight in state politics post the 1999 Lok Sabha election in Ballari which was fiercely fought between former AICC President Mrs Sonia Gandhi and senior BJP leader Ms Sushma Swaraj.
Soon after quitting as minister in the BJP government in November 2011 after his indictment in former Lokayukta Santosh Hegde's report on illegal iron ore mining, the Central Bureau of Investigation, Hyderabad had arrested him on September 5, 2011 and put him in Chanchalaguda central prison in Hyderabad.
The CBI had then arrested him on charges of illegal mining allegedly carried out by the Reddy owned M/s Obulapuram Mining Corporation in Ballari Reserve Forest in Andhra Pradesh bordering Karnataka.
The second arrest of Reddy too was conducted by the CBI, Bengaluru on March 1, 2012. Here, CBI officials were probing the Reddy owned M/s Associated Mining Company's mining illegalities following the directions of the Supreme Court. Reddy and his personal aide K Mehfuz Ali Khan, who were under judicial remand and lodged in Hyderabad's Chanchalguda jail, were taken on a transit warrant by a escort party to Bengaluru for their production before a CBI court in Bengaluru. The court then remanded him to Parappana Agrahara central prison in Bengaluru.
After languishing for three and a half years in the Bengaluru jail, Mr Reddy was released on January 23, 2015 on conditional bail granted by the apex court. Though he was free, Reddy was directed by the apex court not to visit his hometown Ballari and Anantapur and Kadapa where his Obalapuram Mining Company is situated and also asked to surrender his passport to the court.
For the third time, on November 20, 2015, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Lokayukta arrested Reddy for his alleged involvement in the illegal export of iron ore from Belekeri port. The state government had directed the SIT to probe the illegal export of 50,000 tonnes of iron ore by mining firms under the patronage of Reddy and his aides, including two lawmakers, Mr Nagendra and Mr BS Anand Singh, who have now switched over to the Congress party.
Despite, BJP stalwarts including party national president Mr Amit Shah claiming ahead of the 2018 assembly polls that the party has "nothing to do" with Mr Reddy, the latter has been trying to influence party affairs in the Ballari region.
