Friday, September 23, 2011

Court wants bigger inquiry into Janardhana's mines












Hyderabad:  It was his mine in Andhra Pradesh that delivered him to jail. Now, Janardhana Reddy is in new trouble over another mine he owns in Karnataka. The Supreme Court says early investigations suggest that the Associated Mining Company (AMC) in Bellary is guilty of illegal mining including encroachment into forest areas. These allegations will be studied by the CBI.

Mr Reddy was a senior minister in the Karnataka government; he is also a mining baron from Bellary on the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border, where his two brothers and he are widely acknowledged as practitioners of political and financial power.

He was arrested on September 5 after the CBI raided his homes and offices and said that his mine in Andhra Pradesh - the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) was guilty of illegal mining.  

The Supreme Court now wants the CBI to study whether OMC was officially linked to Mr Reddy's Associated Mining Company (AMC) in Karnataka. The court also says that this company has one million tons of ironore which is not possible from the 10 hectares it has officially leased. So the court suspects that AMC is illegally collecting ironore from other areas that serve as its front.

For a few years now, a committee of experts set up by the Supreme Court has been studying illegal mining in the areas on both sides of the border between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It is this committee that supplies the court with ground reports that are then verified and further investigated by the CBI. 

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