Chevella Congress candidate Patlolla Karthik Reddy is in serious trouble. The shocking news that Sabita Indra Reddy’s name has been added to OMC Mining scam case only added to the woes of Karthik Reddy.
Karthik Reddy is facing an uphill task in Chevella, thanks to the several allegations on his land settlements and also CBI cases on Sabita Indra Reddy.
The CBI that is probing the illegal mining scam (pertaining to Obulapuram Mining Corporation of mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy) has now added former mines minister Sabita Indra Reddy and former IAS officer and secretary of mines B Kripanandam as accused in the scam.
This will be a blow to Sabita, who has been denied a ticket by Congress in the ensuing general elections. Sources said that the probe agency will file a supplementary chargesheet on the roles of Sabita and Kripanandam in the court on Wednesday.
The CBI in its first chargesheet filed earlier made Gali Janardhan Reddy, B V Srinivas Reddy and the OMC company as accused along with former secretary of industries (mines) Y Srilakshmi, state mines wing director V D Rajagopal and others. In fact, the CBI has been considering the issue of adding Sabita and Kripanandam also as accused for some time now. Finally, a memo to this effect was filed by the investigative agency in the trial court on Monday and the chargesheet will be filed on Wednesday, sources said.
Once named as accused, Sabita and Kripanandam too will be tried under the same IPC provisions of cheating, criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust along with the provisions of the prevention of corruption Act etc. The case of the CBI is that these public servants colluded with Gali Janardhan Reddy and allowed him to indulge in large-scale illegal iron ore mining in both AP and Karnataka states.
(With inputs from TimesOfIndia)