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Lady IAS topper scores graft first by GS Radhakrishna

Yerra Srilakshmi was an IAS topper but has added another feather to her cap, although a dubious one.

She is the first woman IAS officer to be arrested for alleged corruption.

The 1988-batch officer, held yesterday in connection with the mining case involving the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), owned by arrested former Karnataka minister and mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, was today remanded in CBI custody for three days by a local court.

The 52-year-old, now commissioner of health and family welfare, is accused of criminal conspiracy and abusing her official position to favour the OMC in her capacity as then secretary, industries and commerce.

The arrest and remand marks a turnaround in fortunes for Srilakshmi, an IAS ranker who once handled a key department for over four continuous terms.

Srilakshmi, an IPS officer’s wife and mother of two, was once hailed as an efficient officer by former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who retained her in the urban development, industries and textiles department for two terms each.

Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, the man who succeeded Naidu as Andhra Pradesh chief minister, retained her in the key industries department for over five years, before K. Rosaiah shifted her out.

Besides her alleged proximity to those in power, Srilakshmi, an upper-caste Kapu, is also said to have played her caste card well. Apparently, actor-politician Chiranjeevi, also a Kapu, tried to lobby for her in Delhi till the last minute.

Sources said the remand note “nailed” her complicity in the OMC licence case. The note, submitted to the CBI designated court yesterday, indicted her for ignoring government directives for a second look at the applications of 22 others who had applied for the iron ore mining lease.

Srilakshmi had written to the Union mines secretary on January 18, 2007, that only two companies — OMC and Vinayaka Mining Company, owned by Janardhan Reddy’s father-in-law — had applied for mining leases before the cut-off date, August 28, 2004. Hence she had rejected all the others and granted the lease to the BJP minister in three days.

Srilakshmi had been directed to seek explanations from the applicants before rejecting any. But before the rejected applicants could respond to her last-minute call for explanations, she had issued two mining leases to OMC — one for 68.5 hectares and the other for 39 hectares — through two government orders (GOs No. 151 and 152) on June 18, 2007.

The signature of the minister of mines was obtained on the file the same day. The same day, however, she rejected another application.

Another allegation against her pertains to the clause “captive purposes”. The mining leases to OMC had been given for captive purposes. In other words, OMC was to transfer the mined ore to Brahmani Steel, a sister concern also in Andhra. But this condition was not clearly mentioned in the government orders.

“By showing captive mining as the main clause, OMC had even applied for additional areas for mining but was given advantage to export by not mentioning it in the GO,” the CBI said.

The CBI also found that one of the reasons assigned by Srilakshmi for rejecting the applications of two other companies was these companies did not propose to use the lease for captive purposes.

Sources said the officer also misused her position by tweaking the gazette notification to help the OMC. Although the proposal mentioned only the Malapanagudi area for the mining lease, Srilakshmi, they added, used her influence to add the Siddapuram area, thereby benefiting the OMC immensely.

The CBI has charged Srilakshmi with cheating and “enriching” herself illegally at the cost of the state exchequer and illegally directing officials to help the OMC. “Her husband is an IPS officer and she has resources at her disposal to flee the country. She could also tamper with the evidence and, hence, she was arrested,” the remand report said.

Apart from Srilakshmi and Janardhan Reddy, the others accused in the illegal mining case include OMC managing director B.V. Srinivas Reddy and then mines director V.D. Rajagopal. Both are in jail.