Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 14: Mining baron from Ballari, Gali Janardhana Reddy, and his wife, Lakshmi Aruna, got major reprieve from the state high court when the court quashed two cases filed by the enforcement directorate against them. Relating to these two cases, the enforcement directorate had impounded assets worth Rs 884 crore belonging to the Reddy couple.

For former minister, Reddy, who secured conditional bail after being in jail for long, this is a big relief. On Monday, the division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice, S K Mukherjee, and Justice R B Budihal, upheld the petitions filed by Janardhana Reddy and his wife against the above cases, and dismissed both the cases which were filed by the enforcement directorate in 2011.

The high court observed that illegal mining is said to have taken place between 2004 and 2006. "The enforcement directorate filed cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act against the petitioners in 2011. This act has been ammended in 2009. Therefore, this ammended act cannot be enforced retrospectively," the high court stated.

After the Central Bureau of Investigation registered cases of illegal mining, the enforcement directorate had registered two separate cases against Janardhana Reddy, his wife, and Brahmini Industrial Ltd owned by the family, on October 22, 2011 under money laundering act. It also had frozen landed property, houses, helicopter, bank accounts, deposits and other assets worth Rs 884 crore belonging to the accused. The cases had been registered by the directorate suo motu after the Supreme Court ordered investigation into illegal mining involving Reddy and others.