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In a setback to mining magnate and former Karnataka minister Janardhana Reddy, the Central Bureau of Investigation court has rejected his bail plea and handed over his custody to the CBI until September 19.
The CBI court at Hyderabad, which passed the order on Tuesday, gave the investigation agency the go ahead to interrogate Janardhana Reddy and his brother-in-law Srinivas Reddy
Janardhana Reddy and Srinivas Reddy, also the managing director of Obulapuram Mining Company, were arrested last week in connection to the illegal mining case in Bellary. Both were then taken to Hyderabad, where a designated CBI court remanded them in judicial custody for 14 days till September 16.
However, the Reddys sought to apply for bail while the CBI sought their custody for interrogation. After the bail was rejected, the legal team of the Reddys informed that they would seek a reversal of the order before the higher judiciary in the next couple of days.
Soon after the court passed the orders, a team of CBI officials shifted both Janardhana Reddy and Srinivas Reddy to Dilkusha Guest House, the temporary office of the CBI team where they will be questioned for the next five days.
CBI Joint Director VV Lakshminarayana, who is heading the probe in to the illegal mining and exports of the iron, said that the duo will be produced in the court on the morning of September 19. "If needed we will seek an extension of their custody," he said.
Janardhana Reddy who was arrested by the CBI from his Bellary home in Karnataka, has spent more than a week in Chanchalguda jail of Hyderabad.
Lakshminarayana said that many more people will also be summoned for recording their statements in connection with the probe and requested the media not to continue minute- to-minute reporting on who was coming and going as it will affect the investigations and create problems for the security of the witnesses.
The CBI is interrogating the Reddys in connection with the mining lease granted to them to run the Obulapuram Mining Company. The allegation is that they had used the mining lease of Andhra Pradesh to illegally carry out mining in Karnataka and a probe to this effect had first been ordered by the then Andhra chief minister K Rosaiah.