The early morning, 4.30 am, swoop by the 10-member team of the CBI headed by its joint director Lakshmi Narayan on the homes of former minister and director of the Obulapuram Mining Company, Gali Janardhan Reddy and the company’s managing director B.V. Srinivas Reddy, appeared to have come as a complete surprise to both the local police and the two men.
The CBI sleuths arrived in Bellary late Sunday night and stayed at Mayura lodge in the heart of the city, before conducting the raids. But they maintained such high-secrecy that not even the local intelligence officers were aware of the raids until they actually took place, according to highly-placed sources. While Mr Janardhan Reddy is said to have anticipated his arrest some time in September, the CBI raid on Monday does seem to have surprised him as he neither fled Bellary nor arranged for a huge gathering of his supporters outside his house to take political mileage from it, sources said.
He was in fact asleep when the CBI men arrived at his home on Siruguppa road in Havambhavi. Although the armed security posted outside resisted their entry for a while, the CBI men walked in, grilled the former minister for an hour, and producing the arrest warrant, emerged with him from the house at 7.15 am.
The media was informed about the arrests at the Reddys’ home office, “Kuteeram”, by Mr Laksh-mi Narayan who said both Mr Janardhan Reddy and Mr Srinivas Reddy would be produced before the CBI in Hyderabad.