NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday allowed former Karnataka minister Gail Janardhana Reddy accused in multi million illegal mining case(s) to visit and stay till November 6, 2022 in Bellary district to meet his daughter.
A bench of Justices MR Shah and Krishna Murari also directed the trial court to conduct trial on a day to day basis and complete the entire exercise in six months starting from November 9, 2022. The court asked the prosecution to examine first the witnesses from Bellary in Karnataka and District of Ananthapuram and Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh as far as possible.
While directing Reddy to remain out of Bellary till completion of trial, the bench said that any attempt on Reddy’s part to delay the trial would be dealt with iron hands.
“All the accused are hereby directed to cooperate the learned Special Court in conclusion of the trial at the earliest and within the period stipulated hereinabove and any attempt on the part of the accused to delay the trial shall be viewed very seriously,” the court said in its order.
Reddy was made a minister in the BS Yeddyurappa Government formed after the Bharatiya Janata Party won the Assembly elections in Karnataka in 2008. Three years later, the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested him on charges of illegal mining. He was again arrested in 2015 and granted bail.
As a part of his bail conditions, Reddy was directed not to visit Bellary as well as Ananthapur and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh. He was barred from Bellary as a condition for his release on bail in 2015. Reddy's firm, the Obulapuram Mining Company, is accused of changing mining lease boundary markings and indulging in illegal mining in the Bellary Reserve Forest area.