CBI continues questioning Janardhana Reddy

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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) continued questioning former Karnataka minister G. Janardhana Reddy and his brother-in-law Srinivasa Reddy for the second day on Wednesday in an illegal mining case.

The CBI officials resumed grilling the mining baron and his kin at its office in Koti after the accused were brought back from an undisclosed location amid tight security around 10 a.M. CBI joint director V.V. Lakshminarayana said the duo were being questioned separately in the presence of their lawyers.

He said as the CBI office has no lockup, the accused were taken to another place on Tuesday night. However, he did not disclose the location in view of their security. They were believed to be lodged in central crime station of the city police where the CBI has its own lockup.

After a special court for CBI cases on Tuesday remanded the accused to CBI custody till Sep 19, the officials grilled them for about five hours. The investigating agency is trying to get information from the duo about the illegal mining their Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) indulged in, the exports of illegally mined iron ore and the role of other accused, especially government officials.

The prosecution had told the court that it wants to ascertain where the OMC carried out the illegal mining and how they transported the iron ore to the Antaragangamma Konda (AGK) mining area in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district. Terming it as a huge crime syndicate spread over Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the CBI had told the court that it wants to find a lot from the "kingpins".

It arrested OMC director Janardhana and OMC managing director Srinivasa after raiding their houses September 5 in Karnataka’s Bellary district. They were brought to Hyderabad the same day and the CBI court remanded them to judicial custody till September 19.