Telangana High Court Acquits IAS Y Srilakshmi From Obulapuram Mining Case

The high court dismissed the CBI's additional chargesheet in the decade-long case.

The Telangana High Court acquitted senior IAS officer Y Srilakshmi in the Obulapuram mining case on Tuesday. In addition, the high court dismissed the CBI's additional chargesheet in the decade-long case.

Following her arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in November 2011, the IAS officer spent several months in prison as an under-trial. Gali Janardhan Reddy, a mining baron from Bellary and a former Karnataka minister, was the main accused in the case.

On March 30, 2012, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Srilakshmi. The CBI looked into her role in the suspected illegal mining operations by the Obulapuram Mining Company in Anantapur's Bellary Reserve Forest.

The CBI claimed in the supplemental chargesheet that Srilakshmi misused her position as secretary of industry and commerce between 2007 and 2009. The Central Agency alleged she misused her authority by conspiring to give illegal mining licences in favour of Obulapuram Mining Company Private Limited, and she was named the sixth accused in the case.

According to the CBI, the Obulapuram Mining Company Private Limited (OMC) was illegally mining in the Bellary Reserve Forest, which is split between Bellary in Karnataka and Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, as well as exporting iron ore to countries such as China and Singapore. The OMC is also accused of altering mining lease boundary markings between the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. According to the CBI's attorney, the OMC was granted a mining lease as a consequence of an agreement between Gali Janardhan Reddy and Y Srilakshmi, VD Rajagopal, and others.

(With inputs from ABP Desam — It is a Telugu platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from two Telugu states, follow https://telugu.abplive.com//amp)