Hyderabad: The CBI on Thursday sought to examine suspended IAS officer Y Srilakshmi and former director of Mines and Geology Department (Andhra Pradesh) VD Rajagopal in connection with the grant of mining leases to a cement company which allegedly invested in the businesses of Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy.
The central agency today told the Special Court for CBI cases that it wanted to investigate the duo over their signatures on the grant of mining lease to the company. The CBI had filed a plea in this regard two days back.
The probe agency pleaded that it wanted to question the duo at Chanchalguda jail, where they are presently lodged, on the grounds that it had collected some documents from the Mines and Geology Department, which had been processed by the two officers.
"Both of them processed the applications of the cement company and the files allotting mines to it carried signatures of both these persons and we want to examine them in this regard," CBI`s Deputy Legal Advisor Balla Ravindranath replied when Judge Nagamaruthi Sarma sought to know why it wanted to
examine Srilakshmi and Rajagopal.
The duo was arrested last year in connection with the illegal mining case, involving Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) of former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, on charges of abusing their official position and favouring OMC. They are
presently in judicial custody.
CBI further alleged that Srilakshmi and Rajagopal in their capacity as the then Secretary (Industries and Commerce) and Director of Mines and Geology Department, respectively, had cleared the files of companies which invested in Jagan`s firms as a quid-pro-quo.
