SC rejects mining baron G Janardhana Reddy's plea to campaign in Ballari
New Delhi: In a setback to BJP strongman and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to relax his bail condition to enter Ballari district in Karnataka to campaign for his younger brother and party candidate G Somashekhar Reddy.
A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan refused to entertain the petition and dismissed it. The counsel for Reddy said assembly election campaigning was on in Karnataka and he should be allowed to enter Ballari district to campaign for his brother. She said the bail condition should be relaxed and Reddy allowed to visit Ballari district. To this, the bench said, "Sorry, we would not like to entertain it. The petition is dismissed". After spending more than three years in jail, Reddy, a former state minister and accused in the multi-crore illegal mining case, was granted conditional bail by the apex court in January 2015.
As part of the bail conditions, Reddy was directed by the court not to visit his hometown Ballari, besides Ananthapur and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.