After 4 years in jail, mining baron Janardhan Reddy gets bail from SC

The Supreme Court today granted bail to iron ore mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, who is accused in an illegal mining case along with his firm Obulapuram Mining Co (OMC).

The bail was granted after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted that the investigation in the case involving Reddy is complete, and both the charge-sheet and the supplementary charge-sheet have been filed.

Taking on record the submission of the agency, a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu said, ''Since investigating agency has no objection in granting bail, we are granting bail to the petitioner (Reddy).''

The bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri and Arun Mishra, noted the submission of additional solicitor general Maninder Singh and Reddy's counsel Dushyant Dave that he has been in jail for around four years.

The bench imposed conditions, including that Reddy will be released from jail only on furnishing two sureties of Rs10 lakh each and that he shall not leave the country without the permission of the court. Reddy was told to surrender his passport.

The bench further said that he should not in any way try to influence the witnesses or tamper with evidence.

Reddy had moved the apex court in 2013 challenging a high court order that rejected his bail petition.

He is facing several criminal cases and was lodged in a jail in Andhra Pradesh. He was arrested in 2011. Janardhan Reddy and his brother-in-law B . Srinivas Reddy, managing director of OMC, were arrested by CBI on 5 September 2011 from Bellary in Karnataka and brought to Hyderabad.

In the OMC case, the company is accused of changing mining lease boundary markings and indulging in illegal mining in the Bellary Reserve Forest area, spread over Bellary in Karnataka and Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.