Mining scam case: Reddy sent to CBI custody for 10 days

Khan,25,Reddy’s personal assistant and managing partner in two firms later identified as front companies for the former minister,was put on a lookout list by the CBI last year after he failed to respond to summons issued to him.

It were the documents seized from Khan’s residence during an Income Tax raid in October 2010 that revealed the full extent of illegal mining operations in Bellary.

The CBI had cited Khan’s elusiveness as one the key reasons in its plea seeking Reddy’s custody for 15 days for extended interrogation. It had also argued that the case involved transactions made by Reddy’s Associated Mining Company with 13 other firms and at least a day each would be required to question him on transactions with each company. The court,however,granted the CBI his custody only till March 12.

Reddy was driven to the court in Bangalore after prison officials in Hyderabad – he has been lodged at Chanchalguda jail since his arrest on September 5,2011 in a case of alleged illegal mining by his Andhra Pradesh-registered Obulapuram Mining Corporation – declined his request to fly him,at his own cost. He was received in Bangalore by his friend and political ally,former minister B Sreeramulu.

The CBI probe into illegal mining involving Reddy’s Karnataka-registered Associated Mining Company has found that in 2009-10 alone,as much as 32.9 lakh tonne of iron ore,worth about Rs 1,700 crore,was sourced from encroachments.

The CBI began probing the case after the Supreme Court on September 23,2011,directed it to look into charges that Bellary-based mining companies illegally sourced iron ore from Karnataka and supplied it to Obulapuram Mining Company in Andhra Pradesh.