Hyderabad: Education minister P. Sabitha Indira Reddy on Friday submitted to the Telangana High Court that neither had she taken any pecuniary advantage nor had she demanded such benefits, while signing a file related to allocation of iron ore mining to Gali Janardhan Reddy’s Obulapuram Mining Company.
“As the mining minister, I had signed the file after all the officers from ASO to principal secretary (mining) had approved it”, she said through her counsel, in her criminal revision petition for deletion of her name from the FIR registered in 2012 by the CBI pertaining to the allocation of iron ore mining permissions to Janardhan Reddy’s Obulapuram mining company.
Earlier, the CBI court had rejected her discharge petition, Hence the minister filed a revision petition, which was being heard by Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan.
Her contention was that the CBI came to the conclusion that she had indulged in the criminal misconduct in allocation of mining lease to OMC, without proving any corruption charges against her.
‘Two GOs related to such allotment issued in 2007 were neither set aside by the government nor the judiciary. Even the court did not find fault with the said GOs. But, CBI accuses that there was conduct, without a single piece of any evidence’, she argued.
The case was adjourned to February 25 for the CBI’s reply to the minister’s arguments.
