Bellary: CBI officials on Thursday raided the
offices, business establishments and house of Karnataka
Tourism Minister G Janardhana Reddy, setting in motion its
investigations into alleged illegal mining by a company owned
by him and his brother.
The CBI team, armed with search warrants, scanned through
the records of Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), Ennoble India
-- a chit fund firm which has now ceased its operations -- and
Kannada Nadu, a daily owned by Janardhana Reddy and his
brother Revenue Minister Karunakara Reddy, police said.
They said the sleuths questioned Janardhana Reddy and
their family associate Health Minister B Sreeramulu, who is
also an OMC partner, besides few employees of their
establishments.
Police said some documents and computers had been seized
during the search operation, which Reddy termed as a "large
design aimed at destabilising the only BJP government in the
South".
In a statement, Reddy, whose mining companies activities
in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have come under the CBI
scanner, charged that the Congress and its allies had been
"conspiring" to pull down the Yeddyurappa Government.
"Their (Cong) idea was that they could achieve their goal
by disturbing Bellary leaders. However, they would be
disappointed," Reddy, who two months ago had led a dissidence
against Yeddyurappa but was forced to reconcile at the party
central leadership`s intervention, said.
Under constant attack from Opposition parties in
Karnataka and in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, where his mining
firms hold mining licences, Reddy, who is the Chairman of OMC,
asserted his companies had been carrying out business well
within the framework of the relevant provisions.
"So there are no reasons for me to panic over the latest
development. I have already welcomed the Centre`s decision to
order a CBI probe. I have instructed the company officials to
extend full cooperation to the CBI that raided OMC
headquarters at Havambhavi locality," he said.
Reddy claimed that he was the first to seek CBI probe
into the alleged illegal mining activities and the system of
"mamool" collection by those at the helm of affairs.
He was apparently referring to his earlier Rs 150 crore
bribery charge levelled against the then Chief Minister H D
Kumaraswamy, who headed the JDS-BJP coalition government
between 2006-07.
One of the cases he filed on the bribery issue is still
pending before the Supreme Court.
Reddy further said there had been lot of such raids and
inquiries in the past and on all such occasions his companies
were given clean chit and declared "this time too, we will
emerge spotless".
As the Opposition Congress and JDS gunned for the removal
of the three Bellary ministers from the Ministry, Yeddyurappa
has rejected their demand and also for seeking a CBI probe by
the state government, saying there was "no illegal mining" in
Karnataka.
PTI
