Seized cash from lorry belongs to Srinivas Reddy: Andhra cops

The police today claimed to have prima facie evidence that the Rs4.95 crore cash seized from a lorry yesterday in Guntakal town in the district bordering mineral-rich Bellary district of Karnataka allegedly belonged to BV Srinivas Reddy, Managing Director of Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) who is in CBI custody.

A top police official today said that two persons arrested after the cash seizure "admitted" that the cash was given to them by an unknown person in Bellary claiming the cash belonged to Srinivas Reddy and it was meant for transportation to a safer place in Hyderabad to avoid seizure by CBI.

Both Srinivas Reddy, brother-in-law of former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, who owns OMC, were arrested on September 5 from Bellary. CBI is at present interrogating them.

The central agency, is thoroughly probing the "illegal" mining and irregularities in allotment of mining leases to OMC and carrying out raids at several locations.

In the wake of the seizure of the cash that was being transported from Bellary, CBI is exploring on intensifying its probe and has decided to take over the cash seizure case after it was prima facie established that the cash belonged to OMC.

The CBI is expected to soon file a memo in a court in Anantapur town in this regard and a CBI team today collected details from senior police officials of the cash seizure case, a top police official told PTI on condition of anonymity.