CBI finds goldmine in Gali aide's locker

Bellary - 18 Sep 2011: In a day-long search that stretched into Saturday night, aCBIteam from Hyderabad was huddled inAxis Bankin Bellary, wading through 12 bank accounts and six lockers of mining baron G Janardhana Reddy's business associate B V Srinivasa Reddy.

Late in the evening, Srinivasa Reddy's wife Srilatha and their three children were taken to Axis Bank by Janardhana Reddy's confidant B Sriramulu. The agency wanted to record Srilatha's statement, while the children wanted to meet their father.

Apart from documents in the lockers, about 10 kg of gold is said to have found. Besides the accounts and lockers, the CBI is also reported to be probing Srinivasa Reddy's connection with the Rs 5 crore seized from a truck in Guntakal on Thursday.

Srinivasa Reddy was arrested along with Janardhana Reddy on September 5 by the Hyderabad CBI team investigating illegal mining by Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC). Srinivasa Reddy is managing director of OMC.

The CBI team reached Hagari village, 12 km from Bellary, with Srinivasa Reddy around midnight. He was lodged at the Paramadevanahalli police station and taken to the Axis Bank branch near SP Circle at 9.30am.

The team inspected 12 bank accounts, concentrating on transactions during 2009-10. The team brought two key makers to open the lockers. When they failed, a key maker was brought from Anantapur.

CBI sources had planned to take Srinivasa Reddy to three other banks in the city and also to OMC, but the investigation at Axis Bank took up the entire day. After an 11-hour operation, the team left for Hyderabad, Bellary SP Chandragupta said.

Another CBI team visited the mining leases of Mehaboob Transport (MBT), N Ratnaniah and Tapal Narayana Reddy (TNR) Tumti Mines along the Karnataka-Andhra Pradesh boundary - which Janardhana Reddy is accused of altering. Tapal Ganesh of Tumti Mines - one of the first persons to bring the illegal mining to light - accompanied the CBI team. The team questioned representatives of the three companies on the anomalies they found.

source: TOI