Daijiworld Media Network - Mysuru (SP)
Mysuru, Oct 21: Former Karnataka Lokayukta, Justice N Santosh Hegde, who has been a bitter critic of former minister, G Janardhana Reddy, has flung another barb at Reddy's show of wealth in the form of marriage function of his daughter scheduled to be held at the Palace Ground Bengaluru shortly. "Reddy had robbed the government wealth. Now he is spending this money by holding a lavish function for his daughter's marriage," he lamented.
Justice N Santosh Hegde
Income tax department should keep an eye
Speaking to media persons here on Thursday October 20, Justice Hegde pointed out that Reddy was paying royalty of Rs 27 per metric tonne of iron ore mined by him to the state government from 2006 to 2008. "He was selling the iron ore so extracted to China at the rate of Rs 6,500 to 7,000 per tonne. He also encroached upon other land in undertaking mining. He has now been conducting daughter's marriage on a grand scale. Income tax department has to keep an eye on these developments," he added.
Special wedding invitation
Justice Hegde expressed resentment at the way corrupt people are garlanded and extended a grand welcome when they come out of jail. He remarked that these people do not have shame or apprehension as the people now accept everyone in spite of what they have done and lamented for this blunder being committed by the society as a whole.
About vacancies in judiciary he regretted that the government has not been responding well to the demand of the judiciary for recruitment of additional judges.
Janardhana Reddy's arch rival, Tapal Ganesh, who himself is a miner, noted that the income tax department and Central Bureau of Investigation had impounded huge amount of property and assets belonging to Reddy on the basis of allegation of illegal mining. He suspected foul play in spending lacs of rupees in procuring marriage invitations of Reddy's daughter, Brahmini. He revealed that as per his information, Rs 200 to 300 crore is being spent for this marriage, he wanted the concerned to look into sources of amassing of so much money.
'Simple marriage'
Speaking at Ballari on the subject, former minister and close confidante of Janardhana Reddy, Sriramulu, and brother of Janardhana Reddy and former MLA, G Somashekhara Reddy, insisted that the marriage of Reddy's daughter will be very simple one which will be like any marriage from a middle class family. Speaking on Thursday, they said that information and technology have made giant strides and therefore the marriage invitation looks like being grand. "The marriage will be conducted as per our status. We are inviting Prime Minister, union minister, Sushma Swaraj, chief minister, other state ministers, central ministers, MPs, MLAs and leaders of various parties to the marriage," they explained.