CBI Arrests Srilakshmi In Mining Scam

The Central Bureau Of Investigation on Monday arrested senior IAS officer Y Sri Lakshmi for her alleged role in the illegal mining by the Obulapuram Mining Corporation.

Sri Lakshmi was arrested from her office at the Health & Family Welfare Commissionarate at Koti.

She is the second IAS officer to be arrested in the OMC case, and was booked by the CBI in 2009.

Earlier, IAS officer and former Mines director V Rajagopal was arrested as the 3rd accused in the case.

OMC owner and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, and his brother-in-law and OMC's managing director B Srinivas Reddy, were both arrested from Bellary earlier.

After the arrest, Srilakshmi was produced before the 1st Metropolitan Magistrate at the Nampally Court Complex. The magistrate asked the CBI to produce her again before the court on Tuesday.

Therefore, she will be kept in the CBI's headquarters in the city at Sultan Bazar, Koti.

The CBI has slapped cases against her under various sections, including 420, 120 (B) and 385, in the OMC scam.

Srilakshmi has reportedly confessed that she allotted the Antha Gangamma Konda (AGK) mines, spread over 3 locations in Anantapur district, to Gali Janardhan Reddy's OMC, in violation of the Mines & Minerals Development Regulations Act, 1957.

However, she also said that the allotment was made under pressure from her higher authorities.

She has reportedly named the then minister for Mines & Geology, who is the current Home Minister, P Sabita Indra Reddy, and senior IAS officer M G V K Bhanu. She said that these two had pressurised her to sign the leases to OMC.

It may be mentioned here that the CBI has questioned Sri Lakshmi several times in the last one month. Her arrest looked imminent when she confessed of having alloted AGK Mines to OMC. (INN)