Hyderabad: A special CBI court on Tuesday dismissed the bail petition of former Director of Mining and
Geology department V D Rajagopal, an accused in the Obulapuram
Mining Company scam.
The court had last week reserved its orders on two
petitions of Rajagopal, one for seeking bail and another for
special prisoner status in the jail.
While refusing the application for bail, the court,
however, accepted the request for granting him `special class
prisoner status`.
Rajagopal who is accused number three in the alleged
illegal mining scam, was arrested by CBI on November 12 after
the arrest of former Karnataka minister Janardhan Reddy and
his brother-in-law and MD of the Obulapuram Mining Company B V
Srinivasa Reddy, who are in judicial custody and lodged in the
Chanchalguda Jail here.
Senior IAS officer Y Srilakshmi was arrested in this case
yesterday and was today remanded in three-day CBI custody.
The central agency while opposing his bail application
had earlier charged him with misusing his official position
and misinterpreting the Mining and Mineral Acts to help OMC.
It had also contended that Rajagopal`s release on bail at this
juncture would hamper investigation and that public servants
who helped the accused are still being identified.
"Rajagopal misused his official position to help OMC when
he was holding the additional charge as the MD of the AP
Mineral Development Corporation in 2005. It was at this time
that he succeeded in getting the state government to issue a
memo in favour of OMC in allotting the mines to the company,"
the CBI had earlier alleged.
Rajagopal prevented deserving applicants from getting a
stretch of the mining lease of the 68.5 hectares in Obulapuram
of Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh which was handed over
to OMC, the CBI counsel had submitted.
He was also accused of getting his brother-in-law
appointed as a director of OMC and helping the mining company
"defraud" the exchequer.
However, Rajagopal`s counsel had argued that the CBI had
not made out any clear case against his client.
PTI
