NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday permitted mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy to visit and stay for eight weeks in his native district Ballari where he was prohibited from visiting as per the 2015 order granting bail to him in a mining case.
Reddy can also visit Kadapa in Karnataka and Ananthpur in Andhra Pradesh for a period of eight weeks, a bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari said while modifying the earlier bail order.
"Considering the facts and circumstances of the case and that trial has not even commenced, and that petitioner has not violated any bail condition even when he visited Ballari, it is directed that the condition imposed to not visit these three places in bail order be modified," the bench ordered.
The top court directed him to intimate about the modification of the order to the Senior Superintendent of Police of his native district and listed the plea in the third week of November.
"We observe that trial court may make every endeavour to expedite the trial," it said.
Reddy, accused in a multi-crore illegal mining case, is out on bail since 2015 and several conditions including prohibiting him from visiting Ballari in Karnataka and Ananthpur and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh were imposed by the apex court in its order.
The CBI has been opposing Reddy's plea saying that he should not be allowed to visit district Ballari in Karnataka as he holds considerable influence and might interfere with the investigation.
"He has led multiple petitions, witnesses under police protection have been threatened and vehicles have been set on fire. Over 40 witnesses are there. We do not know what will happen if this gentleman is allowed to enter the area," the probe agency had said.
Reddy was granted conditional bail by the apex court in January 2015 after spending more than three years in jail.
Reddy and his brother-in-law B V Srinivas Reddy, managing director of the Obalapuram Mining Company (OMC), were arrested by CBI on September 5, 2011 from Ballari and brought to Hyderabad.
The company is accused of changing mining lease boundary markings and indulging in illegal mining in the Ballari Reserve Forest area, spread over Ballari in Karnataka and Ananthpur district of Andhra Pradesh.
While granting bail, the top court had directed him to surrender his passport before the concerned trial court and not to leave the country without the permission of the trial judge.