Former tourism minister G. Janardhana Reddy wants to be present in the court hall during the hearing on his bail plea on April 27. The prime accused in the mining scam involving his firm Associated Mining Company (AMC), Mr Reddy, requested the CBI special court judge on Monday to allow him to be present in the court physically during the hearing.
Earlier, Mr Reddy’s judicial custody was extended till April 27. Judge B.M. Angadi also adjourned the bail application filed by the former minister to April 27. The mining baron was presented before the court through video-conference from Parappana Agrahara when he made the appeal to the court. Supreme Court senior counsel Ram Jethmalani will argue on his behalf on April 27.
The judge, however, raised concerns citing violence that sparked off during his last appearance in the court on March 2. The court said a similar incident may not happen again, but there were security issues to be considered before producing the accused in person. Later, the counsel for Mr Reddy requested the judge to shift the hearing on April 27 to the court inside Parappana Agrahara prison. The court adjourned the hearing while the advocates appearing for Mr Reddy said the request was still under consideration.
Mr Janardhana Reddy and 20 others are facing charges of illegal mining, for which CBI filed an FIR against them in October last year on the directions of the Supreme Court. Ex-minister and Congress leader V. Muniyappa and other officials are the other accused in the case. It was alleged that Mr Muniyappa, the then minister for mines and geology, overruled the noting of the secretary mines in 2003, and renewed the lease for 10 years from 2000 to 2010 leaving the period between 1996 and 2000 uncovered, in stark violation of the MMRD Act.
The AMC was taken over by Mr Reddy and his wife G. Lakshmi Aruna and allegedly carried out illegal mining.