Former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy
Hyderabad: In a sensational verdict delivered after 15 years of a crime being committed, the special CBI court in Nampally sentenced former Karnataka BJP minister, Gali Janardhan Reddy, to seven years of rigorous imprisonment in connection with the Obulapuram illegal mining case.
Janardhan Reddy, along with four other convicts, were sent to Chanchalguda Central Prison after medical tests were performed on them right after the verdict was delivered.
The other accused are: Former Andhra Pradesh director of mines, VD Rajagopal (A3); former managing director of OMC BV Srinivasa Reddy (A1) and personal assistant to Gali Janardhan Reddy (A2), Mehfuz Ali Khan (A7).
It is worthwhile to note that BV Srinivasa Reddy is the brother-in-law of Gali Janardhan Reddy.
Forest official Linga Reddy, who was the A5 in the case passed away while the trial was under progress.
Senior IAS officer in the undivided Andhra Pradesh Sri Lakshmi, who was named as A6 in the CBI’s charge-sheet, and had also served jail-term, was discharged by the Telangana High Court in 2022 as not guilty.
The CBI court announced the verdict on Tuesday, May 6. All four have been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment along with a Rs 1.4 lakh fine.
However, the court acquitted the then mines minister who is presently Maheshwaram MLA Sabitha Indra Reddy, and former IAS officer Kripanandam, citing lack of evidence to prove their involvement in the scam. The judge ruled them not guilty, bringing relief to Sabitha, who was added later as an accused in the CBI’s supplementary charge-sheet.
Sabitha had served as the minister in the mines department during the Congress government headed by former chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) from 2004 to 2009. She held the home portfolio after 2009, after the passing away of Rajasekhara Reddy in an unfortunate helicopter accident.
Speaking with media outside the court’s premises, Sabitha thanked the judiciary and said that justice has finally prevailed after twelve and a half years of her being “falsely” framed in the case by the CBI.
“Twelve and a half years ago they falsely framed me in the case though I had done nothing wrong. I had faith in the judiciary all these years that I will be acquitted. It came true today,” she said.
She also remembered how she faced insults from those in the opposition for all these years, who tried to portray her as a corrupt, and that she would eventually serve jail-term.
“Despite all that, the people of my constituency stood by me and elected me as their representative. I thank all those who stood by me in my most difficult times,” she said.
The case is one of the high-profile cases centering on the border area of the undivided Andhra Pradesh in Obulapuram of Anantapur district, and Karnataka. The Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), owned by Gali Janardhan Reddy, was accused of illegal extraction of iron ore, encroachment on forest land, violations of mining leases, and export of ore without proper clearances, causing a loss of over Rs 800 crore to the government.
As per the request made by the undivided AP government in 2009 following the death of YSR, the case was handed over to the CBI, which submitted its charge-sheet in 2011.
In January 2011, Janardhan Reddy was arrested by the CBI.
The hearing of the case gained pace after the Supreme Court directed the CBI court to conclude the case by May, 2025.
Gali Janardhan Reddy, who was nominated as a member of the Karnataka legislative council, was made the tourism and infrastructure minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka.
He quit the party before the Karnataka assembly elections to flout his own party which he named ‘Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha.’
However, his party couldn’t gain a single seat in the last assembly elections in Karnataka.
He then merged his political party again with BJP on May 25, 2024, along with his wife Aruna Lakshmi in the presence of BS Yediurappa and his son BS Vijayendra.
While Gali Janardhan Reddy has the legal remedy of making an appeal on the judgement in the Supreme Court seeking ‘justice,’ it needs to be seen for how many more years the case would take, to bring the real perpetrators of the crime to justice.
This post was last modified on May 7, 2025 3:01 am