The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday arrested senior IAS officer Y Sri Lakshmi for her alleged role in the illegal mining scam of Obulapuram Mining Corporation.
Sri Lakshmi was arrested from her office at the Health and Family Welfare Commissionarate at Koti. She is second IAS officer to be arrested in the OMC case, booked by the CBI in 2009. Earlier, IAS officer and former mines director V Rajagopal was arrested as the third accused in the case. OMC owner and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy and his brother-in-law and OMC's managing director B Srinivas Reddy were arrested from Bellary earlier.
After the arrest, Sri Laksmi was produced before the Ist Metropolitan Magistrate at Nampally Court Complex. The magistrate asked the CBI to produce her again before the court on Tuesday. Therefore, she would be kept in the CBI's headquarters in the city at Sultan Bazar, Koti. The CBI has slapped cases under various sections including 420, 120 (B) and 385 against her in the OMC scam.
Sri Laksmi has reportedly confessed that she allotted the Antha Gangamma Konda (AGK) mines, spread over three locations in Anantapur district, to Gali Janardhan Reddy’s OMC in violation of the Mines and Minerals Development Regulations Act, 1957. However, she said that the allotment was done under pressure from the higher ups. She has reportedly named the then minister for mines and geology and present home minister P Sabita Indra Reddy and senior IAS officer M G V K Bhanu who pressurised her to sign the leases to OMC.
It may be mentioned that the CBI has questioned Sri Lakshmi several times in the last one month. Her arrest looked imminent after she confessed of having alloted the AGK mines to the OMC.