Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court dismissed a petition seeking permission to re-examine Bhaskar Rao, a former survey officer from the Singareni Collieries Corporate Survey Department, who was a witness in the Obulapuram illegal mining case.
The court stated that it could not permit such a request after a year had passed since his testimony and cross-examination were completed.
The petition was filed by BV Srinivas Reddy, the main accused in the OMC case, challenging the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court’s decision to deny the request for re-examination.
Justice K Lakshman heard the petition, where the petitioner’s lawyer argued that Bhaskar Rao had provided contradictory statements in another case related to Obulapuram mining in Bengaluru, thus justifying the need for re-examination.
In response, the CBI’s lawyer opposed this request, noting that Bhaskar Rao’s testimony was recorded in the CBI court on January 10 of last year, followed by cross-examination by Gali Janardhan Reddy’s lawyer in February.
The CBI lawyer emphasized that the testimony was also recorded in a Bengaluru court in March of the previous year, arguing that it was inappropriate to seek re-examination at this stage of the inquiry.
The judge pointed out that Bhaskar Rao had conducted surveys along with two officials at the request of the CBI regarding illegal leases and encroachments.
The primary allegation was that an OMC company owned by Gali Janardhan Reddy encroached upon land for which they had obtained a lease. The survey report indicated that while OMC secured a lease for 68.52 hectares, mining was being conducted on 78.18 hectares.
The court noted that 219 witnesses have already been examined in this case, and with a four-month deadline set by the Supreme Court for completing the inquiry expiring in May, it deemed it inappropriate to request re-examination after such a long period without valid reasons from BV Srinivas Reddy. Consequently, the petition was dismissed.
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