Former minister Janardhana Reddy, under arrest for illegal mining, could face prosecution for possession of two passports, one of which he was planning to use to flee to Dubai where he had finalised a deal to buy a mega shopping mall from a member of the emirates’ ruling family, sources close to the CBI revealed.
Reddy, who got his first passport in 2003 from the regional passport office in Bengaluru, allegedly applied for another from the regional passport office in Tiruchy in Tamil Nadu, making changes in his name, address, mother’s name, and date of birth and managed to get it through passport agents.
He applied for the second passport soon after the CBI confiscated his first during its renewed investigation into illegal mining on the say so of the Andhra Pradesh high court which permitted it to go ahead with the probe in December 2010, claim sources.
Reddy had toyed with the idea of fleeing to an island he bought in 2009 near Florida, in the United States, and to Nelbaro, Sumatra, Indonesia where he had entered into a pact with mining major Earth Stone Holding Limited.
But in the months leading up to his arrest he reportedly zeroed in on Dubai and planned to use his Tiruchy-made passport to make his great escape, say sources.
"Everything was finalised to buy a mega property in Dubai from a member of the ruling family in a Rs. 5,000-crore deal.
Arrangements had also been made to transfer the money through hawala. If the arrest had been delayed by even a few weeks, he would have fled the country," they maintain.