Firoz.T.Totanawala
The Bangalore Metro Reporter
REDDY FOR THE FALL
BELLARY EMPIRE GOING DOWN, REDDY CAMP IN TROUBLE
With the arrest of Janardhana Reddy, the Bellary Empire built by the Reddy Brothers has started crumbling. The mountains of money ‘mined’ by them may also soon vanish given the multifaceted and multidimensional attacks against them by various enforcement agencies.
The Andhra Pradesh Government had ordered a CBI probe into illegal mining by Reddy Brothers’ Obalapura Mining Company in December 2009 and very soon the CBI swung into action and raided the company’s and their offices after registering cases against them under various acts. The Reddys obtained ‘stay’ from the AP High Court and for over a year, the CBI could not move further. Finally the Supreme Court vacated the High Court stay in December 2010.
Alongside, the Income Tax officials also raided their premises and detected huge evasion. Interestingly, the Supreme Court also stepped in and constituted a Central Empowered Committee to probe the illegal mining and encroachments. The Reddys even moved to Supreme Court against the survey of their mines but their petition was dismissed.
Despite heavy odds, the Reddys continued their illegal mining even after AP and Karnataka banned it. They were powerful Ministers in Yedurappa Government and successfully safeguarded their business. On the contrary, Yedurappa made efforts to cut their wings by banning the mining in Karnataka and this ban also reached Supreme Court which allowed mining in the ‘undisputed’ areas. There is another controversy over this judgement by the Supreme Court judge who retired few days later.
The Lokayukta report on the mining scam has completely exposed in detail their clandestine operations of illegal mining and the total surrender of administration in the Mining Zone to their diktats. In fact, the Lokayukta described Bellary as ‘out of bounds’ for the State Government as the Reddy camp has converted it into their personal empire and declared it as ‘Republic of Bellary’ where the law of the land has no value and only the law made and unmade by Reddy Brothers held sway.
The Reddy camp was under the impression that nothing in the world could dislodge them. Their boss Janardhana Reddy was painted as the Modern Krishnadevaraya! Despite many investigating agencies revealing stories of their illegal mining and other frauds, they openly proclaimed that they are honest and truthful as Satya Harishchandra and are 24 carat gold!
But while the Lokayukta had also indicted Yedurappa in the Mining scam, the BJP High Command was forced to force Yedurappa to resign and consequently his cabinet was dissolved. The Reddys made strong efforts to become the Ministers again in the successive Sadananda Gowda cabinet but were told to first come clean out of the Lokayukta charges. They now desperately needed power else they cannot defend and survive in business since they were under the combined pressure of CBI, IT, ED, CEC and even Lokayukta probes. They therefore decided to strike. There were also reports of Reddys floating a regional party and aligning with Jagan Mohan’s party in AP to demand formation of a new state.
Everything was going in their favour as MLA Sriramulu resigned as per the plan and went to Chamundeswamy Temple in Mysore to start his Swabhimana Yatra. But there, he received the shocking news of CBI arresting Janardhana Reddy. The CBI knew their power and clout and therefore meticulously planned the arrest. Now, Janardhana Reddy who lived a life of ten star Luxury is in Jail as an ordinary under trial and the other members of Reddy camp like Karunakara Reddy, Sriramulu and Somashekara Reddy are all in the ‘queue’ to be arrested by CBI sooner or later.
The CBI has freezed Janardhana’s Bank accounts and his wife who draws annual salary of Rs. 18 crores from OMC and is the major partner of most of their business fronts may also face arrest. It is another matter that Janardhana Reddy may get bail as leading legal brains are working overtime for his release.
Whatsoever, the Reddy Brothers can never return to mining and their political business may not be bright. Besides, if the Government orders recovery of the loss caused by them through illegal mining and impose penalty which is four times the loss amount, they will be finished. In one particular instance, the loss caused by them is estimated as Rs.7500 crores.
From all the corners, the Reddys are doomed and their ‘illegal’ empire has already started crumbling! The moral in this story is- Money, Muscle, political power and the consequent arrogance and audacity does not last long. As they say, whatever goes up should come down, so is the reality of Reddys.
And that is all.
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