HYDERABAD: CBI standing counsel Nagendra on Friday informed the Telangana High Court that of the 104 papers in the third supplementary chargesheet filed in the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) case, 101 are new, in which specific substances were revealed and petitioner P Sabitha Indra Reddy was made an accused. The court was hearing a plea filed by the State Education Minister contesting the orders of the Special CBI Court in Hyderabad rejecting her discharge petition.
Nagendra told the court that various applications seeking mining licences were pending with the Government of India (GoI). “We can send applications to the GoI but cannot award permissions. The petitioner granted temporary permissions against the GoI. According to Rule 22(4) of the Mining and Mineral Rules, the applicant must submit a mining plan within six months, which may be forwarded to the GoI. However, they sanctioned consent for applications without these plans and for that, they must stand,” he said, asking the court to reject the petition.
However, counsel for Sabitha told the court that his client signed on a note prepared by the Secretary and this was no reason to approach the court. To this, standing counsel said that ignorance of the law was not an excuse and approval was granted on June 18, 2007 when there were many applications pending.CBI counsel cited multiple Supreme Court and High Court decisions to support his arguments, and said that the petitioner’s actions benefited third parties.