There is more to it than what meets the eye in the Supreme Court granting bail to mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy on Tuesday in the Obulapuram illegal mining case.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which probed the scam, did not raise any objection to the bail petition of Gali, stating that the investigation in the case involving Reddy was complete and both the charge-sheet as well as the supplementary charge-sheet had been filed.
Taking on record the submission of the agency, a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu said, "Since the investigating agency has no objection in granting bail, we are granting bail to the petitioner (Reddy)."
The CBI has followed the same procedure it had done in case of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
In case of Jagan, too, the CBI toned down the chargesheets and did not oppose Jagan’s bail petition, allegedly under the pressure from then powers-that-be. In case of Gali, too, sources said the CBI had acted under pressure from the BJP government.
It is learnt Gali’s “godmother” Sushma Swaraj had used her influence and saw to it that the CBI diluted its investigation in the OMC case. Apparently, Gali had agreed to return to the BJP fold once he steers clear of the case, sources said.
