[dropcap]J[/dropcap]anardhana Reddy had recently come under criticism for the overgenerous spending on his daughter’s wedding. The lavish wedding is estimated to have cost Rs. 100 crore. Over 50,000 guests had attended the wedding with some biggies from Karnataka politics but many from BJP leaders skipped the event. Reddy is a former BJP minister and had faced arrest in the 2012 illegal mining case. He was released on bail last year. He had been actively preparing for his daughter’s wedding soon after he was released on bail. The high-cost wedding came under criticism as it was held soon after the demonetisation announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many leaders were told to keep away from the wedding. Income Tax department had visited Reddy’s residence in Bellary after the wedding.
A taxi driver who supposedly committed suicide has left behind a note, claiming that his employer, a Karnataka Administrative Service officer, helped Bellary mining czar G Janardhana Reddy launder Rs. 100 crore of alleged black money for his daughter’s wedding. In a six-page suicide note, K C Ramesh Gowda, 31, who consumed poison on December 6, accused special land acquisition officer Bheema Naik and his driver Mohammed of threatening him with death if he informed anybody about the money laundering. Ramesh claimed Naik helped Reddy and Independent Bellary MP B Sriramulu exchange the demonetised Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 500 notes worth Rs. 100 crore with Rs. 50, Rs. 100 and Rs. 2,000 bills for a 20 per cent commission. Reddy, who is very close to BJP, finally came under scanner, but one need to see how these inquiries moves against him. In his note, Ramesh wrote 19 points detailing the alleged illegal financial transactions of Naik, who he claimed had agreed to spend Rs. 25 crore to contest the 2018 assembly polls from Hagaribommanahalli in Bellary.
According to the note, Naik met Reddy and Sriramulu on October 28 at the duo’s apartment Parijaata in Bengaluru to discuss his (Naik’s) proposed candidature. This was followed by another meeting on November 15 at an upscale hotel, where Rs. 25 crore was allegedly paid to take care of the wedding arrangements. The note also alleged that Nagaraj, an employee in Karnataka Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa’s office, had received Rs. 25 lakh to close a departmental inquiry against Naik.
Janardhana Reddy is one of the richest politicians of Karnataka. He has subsequently been implicated in the illegal mining scandal in Bellary and the related Belekeri port scam. In 2009, a Supreme Court of India-appointed central empowerment committee recommended action against Reddy-owned Obulapuram Mining Company. An FIR in the case was filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Also, Santosh Hegde, the then Lokayukta or ombudsman of Karnataka state, had indicted Reddy and his two brothers, all of whom were cabinet ministers in the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Karnataka state government at that time, in the mining scandal. After being arrested and sent to judicial custody, all three Reddy brothers and the then CM B. S. Yeddyurappa, were removed from their ministerial positions. Subsequently, they broke away from the BJP. While Yeddyurappa formed the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) party, the Reddy brothers joined up with B. Sriramulu to form the BSR Congress party.
In 1998, Janardhana Reddy’s finance company, Ennoble India Savings, collapsed, leaving unpaid debts of over Rs. 200 crores. However, by 2008, he and his wife declared assets of Rs. 1.20 billion. The Reddy brothers obtained their first lease for an iron mine in 2004 when the Indian National Congress party led the government in Karnataka state. Since then, their rise has been meteoric, driven by soaring commodity prices, primarily due to demand for iron ore from China.
Janardhana Reddy was accused of completely rigging the iron ore mining in this area and defrauding the government. Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation officials had clues to tax evasion and found that Reddy had entered into a MoU with a one-dollar company of Singapore to camouflage the company’s income suppression. They raided the place along with other investigative agencies and formed a report which was on the basis of the report on illegal mining. Reddy is said to have designed a “Zero-Risk system” of iron ore mining, where he seamlessly provided protection to unauthorized and unaccounted mining, with active connivance from government officials at all levels. The rule of the iron ore mafia under his command was called the “Republic of Bellary” in which no external control or governance mechanism had any effect. Janardhana Reddy was arrested on 05 September 2011 by the CBI, and taken to Hyderabad. After the CBI court heard his lawyer’s representations, he along with his brother-in-law, B. V. Srinivas Reddy was remanded to judicial custody and sent to Chanchalguda Jail. The CBI in its ongoing investigations also arrested senior officers of the IAS and IRS. SC granted bail to Reddy on 21st January 2015. Now again, Janardhana Reddy came in the IT trap, let’s see this time whether he would be punished or roam scot-free.
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