SC rejects mining baron G Janardhana Reddy's plea to campaign in Ballari

In a setback to BJP strongman and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy, the Supreme Court today refused to relax his bail condition to enter Ballari district in Karnataka to campaign for his younger brother and party candidate G Somashekhar Reddy.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan refused to entertain the petition and dismissed it.

The counsel for Reddy said assembly election campaigning was on in Karnataka and he should be allowed to enter Ballari district to campaign for his brother. She said the bail condition should be relaxed and Reddy allowed to visit Ballari district.

To this, the bench said, "Sorry, we would not like to entertain it. The petition is dismissed".

After spending more than three years in jail, Reddy, a former state minister and accused in the multi crore illegal mining case, was granted conditional bail by the apex court in January 2015.

As part of the bail conditions, Reddy was directed by the court not to visit his home town Ballari, besides Ananthapur and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.

G Janardhana Reddy and his brother-in-law B V Srinivas Reddy, Managing Director of Obalapuram Mining Company (OMC), were arrested by CBI on September 5, 2011 from Ballari 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 Ballari Reserve Forest area, spread over Ballari in Karnataka and Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The Karnataka assembly election are slated to be held on May 12 in 224 constituencies of the state and the counting of votes and announcement of result will take place on May 15.