Mining baron Janardhana Reddy can’t campaign in Ballari for Karnataka polls: Supreme Court

New Delhi, May 4: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy, who is currently out on bail, cannot campaign in Ballari for the upcoming May 12 Assembly elections in Karnataka.

According to media reports, Reddy had sought Apex Court’s permission as he wanted to campaign for his brother Somasekar Reddy, who is a BJP candidate from Ballari.

The top court rejected Janardhana Reddy’s plea as it didn’t find any merit in it. The court added that Reddy is out on bail and he cannot visit Ballary because of the conditions.

On 2 May, the Congress had accused the Narendra Modi government of shielding Karnataka’s Reddy brothers through “CBI-manufactured clean chit” in the illegal mining scam.

Talking to reporters, Congress leader Rajiv Shukla had said the “scam was established” by the then Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, but still the BJP had given tickets to “Reddy Brothers and their associates” for the May 12 assembly polls.

He said that the Congress government in Karnataka had pre-empted the “manufactured clean chit” to the Reddy brothers by refusing to accept the closure by CBI on March 19 this year and had ordered an intensified probe through a Special Investigation Team.

The Congress leaders added that Modi government has become the benefactor, protector, defender of the ‘Ballari Gang’ responsible for denuding Kannadigas of their rich natural resources through a puppet CBI.