Hush-hush night before CBI belled the Bellary baron

The Monday morning blues that the CBI sleuths gave to Janardhana Reddy last week, packing him off to Hyderabad and to judicial custody thereafter, was possible, thanks to the meticulous planning by CBI officers.

They worked in such utter secrecy that Reddy’s network did not get a whiff of what was to befall the baron’s ‘kingdom’.

According to sources, the CBI sleuths booked a car in the name of Vijaya Bank, Bangalore. On Sunday, a travel company in Bangalore got a call from ‘Vijaya Bank’.

The travel agent was asked to arrange for a vehicle for Bellary. The caller told him to pick up people near the CBI office.

The agent, without an iota of suspicion, sent the cab to the CBI office. Three officers boarded the car and left the city. Upon reaching Challakere, the officers told the cab driver to take U-turn and returned to Bangalore. Once here, they spent a few hours rearranging their plan before starting for Bellary again.

On reaching Bellary, the sleuths checked into a hotel and told the cab driver to handover the car keys and his mobile phone. They told him to use the public phone if he needed to speak to somebody.

The sleuths, who stayed in a prestigious hotel, spent the night in the room, giving final touches to the raid plan.

During the plan discussion, one hotel employee got suspicious and questioned the cops. They told him they were from a business company and were discussing work strategies. The employee was convinced and left the place.

The morning that followed was one that Reddy would not forget in a hurry.  Source said had the hotel employee spoken about his suspicion to anybody, Reddy would have been alerted and he would have escaped.