Several companies, including the Obalapuram Mining Company (OMC), owned by Reddy have been allegedly involved in these activities for a long time.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to interrogate Karnataka tourism minister G Janardhana Reddy, into the alleged illegal mining activities in Bellary. Several companies, including the Obalapuram Mining Company (OMC), owned by Reddy have been involved in these activities for a long time.
Earlier on Wednesday, CBI officials of the Hyderabad unit, which is investigating the illegal mining row, took into custody OMC's managing director BV Srinivas and manager PM Shiva Kumar, for interrogation. Both were later released on Friday night. The CBI also questioned OMC's director and Rayadurga (Andhra Pradesh) assembly member K Ramachandra Reddy, an official said.
"We collected a lot of information about the scam. Based on the information given by them, we may interrogate Janardhana Reddy shortly," said one of the officers.
Surprisingly, the officials' visit to Bellary had created a panic among other mine owners. The questioning of two OMC employees comes in the wake of the recent interrogation of an engineer.
The CBI officials confirmed that there were several irregularities in the mining operations conducted by OMC and it had also detected violation of rules from the time of issuing mining licence.
The mining companies have allegedly dug out the iron ore from locations in both Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, in which they were not originally permitted. During the CBI's previous visit, it was proved that the companies had crossed the borders of Karnataka and exported them. "We found large-scale discrepancies in the quality of minerals exported," an official said.
After OMC submitted a detailed report of the mining activities to the CBI in February, the investigating agency had issued notices to about 65 companies, as part of the probe.
On going through the report submitted by the OMC, the CBI found major violations in the allotment of mining leases. "The iron ore used at the Brahmani Steel Factory was illegally exported later," said the official.
The CBI also found that OMC had not even paid the taxes that were due to the government.
The OMC had paid Rs12 per tonne as a royalty to the government, which came to Rs3.36 crore, while it made a profit of more than Rs1,500 crore, a CBI official said.
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