Senior IAS officer Srilakshmi has received a severe setback from the Supreme Court in the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) case, a day after the CBI Court gave its verdict awarding jail sentence to the accused.
The Supreme Court has completely set aside the High Court verdict, which discharged Sri Lakshmi from the case in 2022. The Supreme Court has ordered that the matter be re-investigated in three months and made it clear that the case should be re-investigated regardless of the High Court verdict.
The Supreme Court has recently rejected the Telangana High Court’s decision on that discharge petition and has ordered the lower court to re-investigate the case in 3 months. It is known that the CBI court in Hyderabad delivered its final verdict in the Obulapuram mining case in Anantapur district on Tuesday.
The main accused, Gali Janardhana Reddy, along with BV Srinivasa Reddy, VD Rajagopal and Mefaz Ali Khan, were sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of Rs. 20,000 each. VD Rajagopal, a government employee, was sentenced to an additional 4 years in prison and a fine of Rs. 2,000 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court said that if the accused did not pay the fine, they would have to serve an additional 6 months in ordinary prison. Obulapuram Mining Corporation was fined Rs. 2 lakh. The verdict said that even though they were sentenced to seven years under different sections, they should be served concurrently. The time already served in prison was exempted.
Meanwhile, the court acquitted former minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, who served as the Mines Minister between 2004-09, in the same case. Along with Sabitha, the CBI court acquitted retired IAS Krupanandam. Linga Reddy, who was A5, died during the trial stage of the case. Similarly, Sri Lakshmi, who was A6, was discharged from the case by the Telangana High Court in 2022.
The CBI has alleged that Gali Janardhan Reddy, BV Srinivas Reddy, then Mines Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, and Kripanandam, who were made secretaries of the Industries Department, Sri Lakshmi, Director Rajagopal, and Linga Reddy collaborated with Gali Janardhan Reddy and BV Srinivas Reddy in the allocation of leases.
The CBI arrested Gali Janardhan Reddy, BV Srinivas Reddy, Sri Lakshmi, Rajagopal, and Ali Khan in this case. After about two years of investigation, the CBI filed the first chargesheet in December 2011. Then, in March 2012, it filed supplementary chargesheets against Sri Lakshmi and in 2013 against Ali Khan. The CBI, which named Sabitha Indra Reddy and Kripanandam as witnesses in the first charge sheet, later found both of them to be accused and filed the final chargesheet in April 2014.