New Delhi/Bangalore, Sep 23 (IANS): The Supreme Court Friday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is already under its instruction to investigate illegal mining in Karnataka, to also probe allegations of illegal extraction of iron ore by arrested mining baron G. Janardhana Reddy.
Charges of illegal extraction in Andhra Pradesh have landed Janardhana Reddy, a former Karnataka minister, in a Hyderabad jail.
Reddy, minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party's B.S. Yeddyurappa-led government in Karnataka, has always asserted that his mining business was confined to Andhra Pradesh and that he was not mining in Karnataka.
The government led by Yeddyurappa, which went out July 31 and was succeeded by one led by Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, had rejected persistent demand from opposition parties and various civil society groups to have the CBI probe Reddy's illegal mining in Karnataka.
The CBI arrested Reddy Sep 5 -- along with B.V. Srinivasa Reddy, managing director of his Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC)-- from Bellary for illegal mining in Andhra Pradesh.
They both are now lodged in Hyderabad's Chanchalaguda jail.
The Supreme Court directive to the CBI followed a report by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), appointed by it, that, contrary to Reddy's claims, he and his wife owned the Associated Mining Company in Karnataka, which had indulged in illegal extraction in the state.
The apex court forest bench, headed by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, also ordered the CBI to probe the mining activity of the Deccan Mining Syndicate owned by S.M. Jain.
The Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), which had been for years demanding a CBI probe into Reddy's mining business, hailed the Supreme Court directive.
Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda said his government would abide by the apex court's decision.
"I will abide by the Supreme Court decision," Gowda told reporters hours ahead of the decision. He was asked for reaction to the CEC's recommendation to the court on Thursday for a CBI probe into illegal mining in Karnataka.
In its report to the Supreme Court, the CEC said that Reddy and his wife Laxmi Aruna had flouted norms to become owners of AMC and disregarded rules to get its mining lease extended.
The CEC report said that mining lease was apparently for the purpose of securing transport permit which existed on "only on the paper". "In all probability these permits were being used for the transportation of iron ore illegally mined from other areas," the CEC report told the apex court.
The CEC report said that AMC was granted mining lease of 10.12 hectares. The report said that the amount of iron ore that was shown to be extracted from the said lease was not possible from such a small plot.
Senior counsel Prashant Bhushan told the court that complete picture of what was going on would not emerge unless the CBI investigation into illegal mining in Bellary reserved forest (Anantpur District) was extended to illegal mining in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur districts of Karnataka. He said that while Andhra Pradesh had consented to the CBI probe, Karnataka has not.
The court wanted the CBI officials to be present in the court during the next hearing so that the agency could know what was in the mind of the court and also apprise it of the parameters it had to follow while undertaking the probe.