With less than 24 hours left for the elections in Telangana, the news couldn’t have come at a worse time for P Karthik Reddy, who is contesting from Chevella on behalf of Congress.
Karthik Reddy’s mother and former minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy was summoned to appear before the special court for CBI cases in connection with the Obulapuram Mining Company scam.
The case on Sabita Indra Reddy is a seirous blow to an already tepid campaign of Karthik Reddy. At a time when the whole country is talking of political corruption, the slew of corruption cases on Karthik Reddy’s mother might seriously dent his image and impact his election prospects.
The special court has taken cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the investigating agency against Ms Indra Reddy and senior IAS official B. Kripanandam adding them as the accused in the case on Monday.
Principal Special Judge Balayogi, who examined the chargesheet, further issued summons to Ms Indra Reddy and Mr Kripanandam to appear on June 6.
Earlier, on April 9, the CBI had filed a supplementary and final chargesheet in the case naming the former minister as Accused No. 9 and Mr Kripanandam as Accused No. 8. The CBI had told the court that though she was earlier named as a witness in the case, Ms Indra Reddy’s role was established during investigation.
The chargesheet was filed against them under Sections 120-B(Crimial Conspiracy), 409(Criminal beach of trust by a public servant) of the IPC and section 13(2) r/w 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The chargesheet consisted of 104 documents and 36 witnesses.
The CBI also informed the court that the chargesheet can be treated as final report as part of investigation into the case, except for the matter of inter-state boundary dispute, which is pending in the Supreme Court.
According to the chargesheet, Ms Indra Reddy who was the minister for mines and geology, and Mr Kripanandam, the secretary during the tenure of Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy as the CM, were involved in issuing provisional mining lease to help the Obulapuram Mining Company even though there was no such provision.
[With inputs from Deccan Chronicle]