Congress creating fear near my Bengaluru residence: Gali Janardhan Reddy
Ballari: Mining baron turned politician, Gali Janardhan Reddy claimed on Monday that he was feeling unsafe living in his home in Bengaluru and had decided to move to a village either in north Karnataka or Hyderabad Karnataka for reasons of security.
Mr Reddy, who was speaking to reporters at his farmhouse in Hanagal, Molakalmur taluk, said he had appealed twice to the state government to provide him security, but had not received any so far although he was given Y category security every time he went to Hyderabad, by the Telangana government.
"For the past few days, I have been feeling insecure as the Congress has created a fearful environment around my house in Bengaluru. So, I have decided to move to a village either in North Karnataka or Hyderabad Karnataka within the next three or four months if the Supreme Court again refuses my plea to live in Ballari," he added.
The former BJP minister is currently out on bail after his arrest for his alleged involvement in illegal iron ore mining and banned from entering iron-ore rich Ballari district, which was once his fiefdom.
Calling the charges of illegal mining against him false and fabricated, he claimed the Congress had used the CBI to arrest and send him to jail for four years.
"If I had done illegal mining worth one lakh crore why was the previous Congress regime at the Centre not able to recover even ten rupees from me? If the figures given by it are true, then why did the CBI file a chargesheet for an alleged loss of a mere 200 - 300 crore?" he demanded, challenging Congress leaders to an open debate on the issue.
As for the Ballari Lok Sabha by-poll, he said people of Ballari would not let senior BJP leader and his close friend, B Sriramulu down. "Let DK Shivakumar spend crores , but people are with Sriramulu," he asserted.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters at Kudligi, former CM Siddaramaiah accepted Mr Janardhan Reddy's challenge for a debate.
"Let jail bird Reddy fix the venue and date. It's better he does not to provoke us, otherwise his bail will be cancelled and he will go back to jail," he said.
