HYDERABAD: Former home minister P Sabita Indra Reddy and former secretary of mines B Kripanandam on Wednesday appeared before a special CBI court here in the illegal mining case allegedly involving Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) owned by mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy. The matter has been posted to June 16.
The court had earlier issued summons against Sabita Reddy and Kripanandam seeking their appearance before the court, after it took cognisance of the supplementary chargesheet filed against them by the CBI on April 9. Both the accused submitted personal bonds and sureties of Rs 25,000 each. Sabita has been named as accused No 9 and Kripanandam as accused No 8.
Others named by the CBI in its earlier chargesheets in the case include former Karnataka minister Janardhan Reddy and and his brother-in-law BV Srinivas Reddy (both now in jail), suspended IAS officer Y Srilakshmi and K Mehfuz Ali Khan, the personal assistant of Janardhan Reddy, among others.
The CBI had charged Sabita and Kripanandam under IPC 120B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant) and Sections 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
According to the chargesheet, Sabita, who was the minister for mines and geology, and Kripanandam, the secretary during the tenure of YS Rajasekhar Reddy, were involved in issuing provisional mining lease to help the OMC though there was no such provision.
CBI in its chargesheet contended that the OMC mine in the state was used to legitimise its illegal iron ore extracted in Karnataka.
The authorities of AP had also accorded huge number of transport permits to facilitate the transport of such unauthorised quantum of ore. Both Sabita and Kripanandam had entered into a criminal conspiracy to help OMC and issued provisional mining lease for 68.50 hectares in favour of OMC without any justification by violating the provisions of Mines & Minerals (Development Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act) & Mineral Concession Rules, 1960, CBI said in its chargesheet.