Udumula Sudhakar Reddy
Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday filed a charge sheet against Karnataka former minister Mr Gali Janardhan Reddy and four others in illegal mining scam case.
The investigating agency in the chargesheet filed in the special court for CBI cases at Nampally accused that Gali conspired with officials and resorted to illegal mining elsewhere in Karantaka and sold it using the permits from AP. CBI officials found that OMC exported 65 lakh tones of iron ore illegally by using the permits of 68.5 hectare lease in AGK mine.
CBI joint director Mr V V Laskhminarayana said “Gali Janardhan Reddy, B V Sreenivasa Reddy entered into a criminal conspiracy with VD Rajagopal, Linga Reddy and Y Srilakshmi and others and got mining leases allotted to OMC and indulged in illegal mining activities to lakhs of tones of iron ore. We have filed chargesheet against the accused against whom we completed the investigation. Others name will be included after further investigation,”
He added,” In the investigation scientific techniques like the satellite imageries and
advanced surveying methods have been used to establish the aspect of illegal mining. We
also used forensic accounting technique to analyse the computer hard disks, laptops,
mobile phones and the data retrieval techniques are used,”
Though the dead mines official Mr R Linga Reddy who was the then Assistant Director of
Mines Department was named as accused in the chargesheet action is dropped against him.
In the chargesheet CBI alleged that Rajagopal being a public servant abused his official
position and sidelines other eligible mine applicants and gave priority to OMC. Rajagopal
also instructed Linga Reddy the assistant mines director not to inspect the mines at the
field level and aided the illegal mining. The subordinates of Linga Reddy issued permits
on large scale to Gali’s firms. CBI didn’t file any charge sheet against forest officials
as there is no evidence against them regarding the alleged irregularities. However CBI
didn’t mention the area from which the illegal iron ore is brought from except saying its
from Karanataka.
Probe on political leaders on CID JD
There is no mention on the alleged role of political leaders in the scam including the
then mines minister Ms Saita Indra Reddy, Kadapa MP YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and Former Chief
Minister N Chandra Babu Naidu in the chargesheet. Sources said Kadapa MP Mr. Even Jagan
is not listed as witness in the case though he made allegations against Naidu. Mines
owner and Congress leader Mr N Konda Reddy who made a statement against YS Jagan is added
as witness in the case. Minister for Mines Ms Sabita Indra Reddy is listed as witness in
the case sources said. TD leader and mines owner C Shashi Kumar is made as key witness in
the case apart from another mines owner Tapala Ganesh who joined BJP recently. The
forest official Mr Kallol Biswas is also added as witness in the case.
CBI is non committal on the role of the political leaders in the scam. When asked about
the involvement of political leaders Mr Lakshminarayana said ,”chargesheet is filed as
against whom the investigating is completed. Investigation is still on against others.
Depending on the evidence we will file supplementary chargesheet,” Replying to query on
Sabita Indra Reddy’s role he said,”Investigation is on,”
How Gali was nailed in Chargesheet?
OMC records says that 28.9 lakh metric tonnes of iron ore from AGK mine from 2007-8 to
2009-2010 and the quality of iron ore in these permits was shown between 62 per cent to
65 per cent Ferrous content. Records collected from various ports prove the quantity of
iron ore exported by this company. Experts from National Mineral Development Corporation
and Indian Bureau of Mines and other agencies collected iron ore samples from the mine
and sent them to laboratories of national repute and in analysis it is found that iron
ore is of very low and not of commercial grade. This establishes that he had brought iron
ore from other areas and sold it here.
“The mine is not excavated to an extent of 29 lakh tones as it was claimed. The
satellite images and photographs of national and international satellites and from the
National Remote Sensing Centre archival from 2007 to 2011 it is visible that there was no
major mining activity from 2007 to 2010 and no possibility of such quantity of iron ore
extracted from this place,” alleged CBI in the chargesheet.
In physical survey by the Singareni collieries officials using latest Total station and
3d terrestrial laser scanner it was confirmed the excavation was not carried as per the
approved mining plan. They found that only 40,387 tonnes of iron ore was excavated within
the lease boundary the remaining amount was excavated from outside the lease area from
neighbors. Mine owners, truck owners and transporters gave witness against Gali Janardhan
Reddy in the case. During the raids crores of rupees of cash and gold is recovered.
Charged
1. Gali Janardhan Reddy Director OMC( in jail)
2. B V Sreenivasa Reddy MD OMC(in jail)
3. V D Rajagopal then director Mines and Geology(in Jail)
4. Obulapuram Mining Company private limited
5. R Linga Reddy the then AD Mines Anantapur(died)
Charges against Gali
• 120-B criminal conspiracy(conspiring with officials to get lease and officials abused
their position and granted him lease)
• 420(cheating the government by exporting illegal iron ore from Karnataka with AP
permits)
• 409(criminal breach of trust for misutilising the iron ore mine entrusted to him for
particular purpose)
• 468(Using the forged documents to cheat. Using the permits by application showing false
records)
• 471 (Using forged as genuine document and exporting lakhs of tones of iron ore)
• Section 13(2) read with 13(1( (d) criminal misconduct under prevention of Corruption
act against VD Rajagopal
CBI officials estimated that OMC scam amount would be around rs 5000 crore. Around 65 lakh tonnes of iron ore is illegally exported. Each tonne is exported around 120 to 170 US dollars at an average of 150 dollars per tonne of iron ore. It comes around 7500 rupees in Indian
currency. The total makes up to around 5000 crore. Central Bureau of Investigation court room is filled with the chargesheet copies as the agency brought 50 thousand papers of each copy.
CBI Joint director Mr V V Lakshminarayana said ,”the crux of the chargesheet runs into
186 pages with 201 witnesses and 607 documents running into 50,000 pages,”
CBI teams lead by Additional SP Mr R M Khan has brought 10 huge trunk boxes with the
documents to court in the city armed reserve vehicle. The trunk boxes are specially
ordered to hold the chargesheet copies.
The court sore room already has several boxes of documents regarding other cases like
railway recruitment scam and other financial frauds in which trial is on. The
investigation official of the case Addditional SP Mr R M Khan submitted the chargesheet
in the case.
CBI special court judge Mr B Naga Maruthi Sharma personally inspected the court store
room on Saturday.
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