AP’s former top mining official held

CBI officials have made yet another high-profile arrest in the illegal iron ore mining case involving Karnataka’s BJP leader and mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy.

VD Rajagopal, a former director of mines in Andhra Pradesh, was arrested late on Saturday. He was taken into custody past midnight after a session of grilling. Sources said that even as Rajagopal was facing the volley of questions from the CBI officials, another team of officials was carrying out a search and seizure operation at his residence in Hyderabad.

The accused was produced before a magistrate on Sunday. He was remanded in CBI custody till Monday. He was handling the mines allotment since 2004 and is accused of deviating from the procedure for allotting the iron ore mines at Obulapuram in AP to Janardhan Reddy’s Obulapuram Mining Company.

In fact, Rajagopal has been telling the media that the deviations happened only after the powers that be intervened and influenced the process. The mines allotment happened during the regime of YS Rajasekhara Reddy as the state’s chief minister.

Rajagopal is also accused of helping YSR’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy in many instances, particularly in accommodating a quid pro quo arrangement between Jagan and the investors in his businesses.

The CBI is also looking to arrest another officer, Sri Lakshmi, who was the mines secretary during that period.