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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Rs 19,000 hotel bill for ‘Gadkari sir friends’...by Amitabh Sinha and Johnson TA

Rs 19,000 hotel bill for ‘Gadkari sir friends’...by Amitabh Sinha and Johnson TA

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published Published on Sep 12, 2011   modified Modified on Sep 12, 2011

*Rs 19,000 to Atria Hotel for ‘Nithin Gadkari sir friends’ on August 31, 2010.

*Rs 44,000 for a money counting machine on September 9, 2010.

*Rs 10,000 for the wedding of a journalist’s son.

*Footwear for G Janardhan Reddy’s son.

As the CBI pursues former Karnataka minister G Janardhan Reddy and his illegal mining activities, details emerging from the computers and diaries of close associates of the mining baron are providing investigating agencies a clear picture of the kind of activities that went on around what is now emerging as an organised, mafia- style iron ore smuggling operation.

The personal diary of 24-year-old Madhu Kumar Varma, for all public purposes the proprietor of an independent iron ore trading firm Madhushree Enterprises in Bellary, seized by the Income Tax department in October 2010, details payments made on behalf of Reddy, leading investigators to believe that Varma’s company was one among over a dozen used as a front by Reddy.

Handwritten papers seized from Madhu details the different expenses, including a payment of Rs 19,000 to top business class Atria Hotel for “Nithin Gadkari sir friends”. Hefty cash payments have been shown towards officials of GMR group, bureaucrats including an official of the state mines office, advocates and journalists also.

Income Tax raids in October 2010 on a second seemingly independent iron ore trader Karapudi Mahesh, who was found to be a front operator for Reddy following investigations by the Karnataka Lokayukta, revealed an extensive account of bribes paid to government officials to facilitate iron ore smuggling in a computer file labelled “department expenses’’. The file has details of payments amounting to Rs 2.46 crore made to 617 government functionaries of various ranks and cadres across departments between 2009-10.

Mahesh also maintained detailed records of money paid to him by people from Bellary wanting to transport illegal iron ore under a head called “risk amount’’. This also details corresponding payments through cheques of Rs 4.79 crore made to Reddy as “Bellary risk amount’’ in just one month.

“Bellary risk amount means amounts collected as hafta for transport of illegally mined iron ore,” explained the IT papers, adding that “this was indicative of the huge cash generated in the illegal mining activities”.

Details secured by the Income Tax department from laptops belonging to Mahesh and Swastik Nagaraj, another illegal front operator for the smuggling business, provides accounts of “day-wise iron ore transportation details which occurred among various source and destination points between November 2009 and June 2010’’, according to the Karnataka Lokayukta report of July 27, 2011.

It is the files seized by the IT department in October 2010 from associates of Janardhan Reddy, following tip-offs, that first provided documentary evidence of the operations of an organised group that had gained control over the entire mining region of Bellary.

“The benamis who were acting as fronts for the Reddy brothers maintained exhaustive details of transactions they were involved in. From spreadsheets detailing movement of iron ore, payments and receipts to daily account diaries — all have been meticulously maintained by these associates, probably to prove their accountability to their bosses. This has now played a major role in exposing the operations in the illegal iron ore smuggling business from Bellary,’’ a Lokayukta investigator said.

“In mafia-style operations, front operators tend to keep detailed accounts for their bosses out of fear. In this case these records have been valuable to investigators as well,’’ said a former Lokayukta investigating official.

Meanwhile, in continuing efforts to find hidden records on the activities of Reddy and his associates, the CBI on Sunday conducted searches at the residences of two close Bellary associates of the former minister and seized several documents. An 11-member CBI team raided the homes of the chairman of the Bellary Urban Development Authority, Gurulinge Gowda, and gram panchayat member Rajashekara Gowda in a continuing search for more evidence on the operations of the Reddy brothers.


The Indian Express, 12 September, 2011, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rs-19-000-hotel-bill-for-gadkari-sir-friends/845165/


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