OMC scam: Reddy's PA gets judicial custody till Oct 17

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Hyderabad on Friday  remanded Mehfuz Ali Khan, personal assistant of mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, to judicial custody till October 17 in connection with the Obulapuram Mining Company scam.

The Bengaluru police team produced Khan before the Principal Special Judge court for CBI cases here after prisoner transit warrant was issued on September 25 for his production before the CBI court in Hyderabad.

Khan, who was named as accused number seven in the OMC case, was sent to Chenchalguda jail. The CBI had sought his 14-day custody.

Khan, also an accused in the Associated Mining Company scam, along with Janardhana Reddy and others, was lodged in a Bengaluru jail since his surrender before a court in Bangalore on March 2 and was brought to Hyderabad for the first time in connection with the OMC case.

The CBI had been making efforts to examine him in Hyderabad, as it alleged that there was a crucial link between him and Reddy in the OMC scam, which, it said needs to be probed.

The agency filed a police custody petition to interrogate him in order to know about the modus operandi adopted by him in connivance with Gali and OMC and to identify his accomplices in the crime as well as the buyers of the illegally-mined iron ore.

The court has posted the matter to October 8. Khan, however, told the court that he was falsely implicated in the case and none of the 205 witnesses in the case had deposed against him.

He further claimed that he was in no way related to OMC as he had his own firm dealing with iron ore trading and it was only that he worked for one year as a technical assistant in Bramhani industries during 2007-2008.

The judge however, asked him to file a petition in this regard and not to make any oral submission. The CBI, which is investigating the illegal mining case involving OMC, owned by Reddy, had filed a chargesheet against him, his brother-in-law B V Srinivas  Reddy and others in December last year and also against suspended Indian Administrative Ser4vice officer Y Srilakshmi.

The OMC has been accused of changing mining lease boundary markings between Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, as well as indulging in illegal mining in Bellary Reserve Forest areas between Karnataka's Bellary district and Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district.