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Hyderabad: In a blow to senior IAS officer Y Srilakshmi in the Obulapuram illegal mining case, the Supreme Court has set aside the High Court’s order quashing the case against her filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2022.
The apex court has granted 4 months to conduct a hearing on her alleged role in the illegal mining of iron ore in the Bellary Reserve Forest in Obulapuram and Malapanagudi villages in Anantapur district of the undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Srilakshmi was then the acting secretary for industries and commerce under Congress chief minister Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy, from 2007 to 2009.
The Supreme Court also noted that the hearing needed to be carried out without being influenced by the High Court’s order.
The CBI filed its charge-sheet in 2011 in the case, and recorded Srilakshmi as the accused number six in the case in the supplementary charge-sheet it had filed in 2012.
After the special CBI Court in Nampally dismissed the quash petition filed by her. She then approached the High Court and filed a discharge petition to quash the charges against her, which was ruled in her favour in 2022.
She was arrested by the CBI in November 2011 for her alleged role in granting the mining licenses in the case, and had spent months in jail. After her suspension was revoked in 2016, she initially served in Telangana, and before receiving transfer orders from the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in 2020 to Andhra Pradesh. She was appointed the special chief secretary to the YSRCP government headed by former AP chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
A 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 on Tuesday, May 6.
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).
This post was last modified on May 7, 2025 7:54 pm