SC to hear on Friday mining baron's plea to visit Ballari

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a petition filed by former Karnataka minister and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy seeking its permission to visit Ballari to see his ailing father-in-law.

Reddy, who is accused in a multi-crore illegal mining case, is currently out on bail. A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi agreed to hear his plea on Friday.

Reddy's counsel senior advocate S. Ganesh Reddy's counsel moved the plea seeking an urgent hearing in the matter. He told the court that Reddy's father-in-law had suffered a stroke and was recuperating at a hospital in Ballari, Karnataka.

The former Minister has been barred from visiting Ballari, his native place, by a judicial order.

The CBI arrested Reddy and his brother-in-law B.V. Srinivas Reddy, managing director of the Obalapuram Mining Company (OMC) in September 2011 in a case related to illegal mining in Ballari Reserve Forest Area by altering their mining lease boundary. The Ballari Reserve Forest is spread over Ballari and Anantapur. The duo was moved to Hyderabad after their arrest from Ballari.

Reddy was granted a conditional bail in 2015, after being lodged in jail for more than three years. The court granting bail however, restrained Reddy from visiting Ballari, Ananthapur and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.

In March, the court turned down a plea to modify Reddy's bail condition to visit Ballari.

--IANS

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