BANGALORE: Gali Janardhana Reddy, alleged kingpin of the multi-crore illegal mining scam, is set to walk out of jail by Saturday.
After spending three years and four months behind bars, the former Karnataka minister on Tuesday secured bail from the Supreme Court in the Obulapuram Mining Company case.
Reddy has already got bail in four other cases in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, all related to illegal mining.
Currently lodged in the Parappana Agrahara jail in Bengaluru, he is expected to be released in the next two or three days, once the formalities are done.
The Obulapuram case is being heard by a CBI court in Hyderabad, and the Supreme Court order will have to reach that city, and bail conditions laid down. Once the paper work is completed, the CBI court will issue an order to release Reddy.
The CBI had arrested him with his brother-in-law Srinivas Reddy, managing director of Obulapuram Mining Company, on September 5, 2011. They were taken from Ballari in Karnataka to Hyderabad. Janardhana Reddy’s company allegedly changed boundary markings and even mined in reserve forest areas.
A Supreme Court bench comprising chief justice HL Dattu, justice AK Sikri and justice Arun Mishra granted conditional bail to Reddy after the CBI said its investigation was complete, and it had no objection to his release. The court directed Reddy to furnish two sureties of `10 lakh each. Asking him to surrender his passport, the court barred him from leaving the country without its permission.
The court also barred him from visiting his turf of Ballari district in Karnataka and Kadapa and Anantapuram districts in AP.