Bengaluru, May 6: A CBI special court has sentenced former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy and three others to seven years of imprisonment in connection with the Obulapuram illegal mining case. The verdict comes nearly 14 years after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet in the case.
Reddy, who currently represents the Gangawati Assembly constituency and recently rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party on March 25, 2024, was named as the second accused. Previously, he was associated with the Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha.
Along with the jail term, the court imposed a fine of ₹10,000 each on the convicted individuals and a ₹1 lakh penalty on the mining firm. Following the judgment, the CBI took Reddy and the other convicts into custody.
The case pertains to allegations of illegal mining operations and tampering with lease boundary markings in the Bellary Reserve Forest, located on the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh border. The offenses were said to have occurred between 2007 and 2009, causing an estimated ₹884 crore loss to the public exchequer.
Those convicted include Srinivas Reddy (A1), Managing Director of Obulapuram Mining Company and Reddy’s brother-in-law; former Mines and Geology official VD Rajagopal (A3); and Mehafuz Ali Khan (A7), Reddy’s assistant. The court, presided over by Principal Special Judge for CBI cases T. Raghu Ram, acquitted former minister Sabitha Indra Reddy and ex-bureaucrat B. Krupanandam.
