OMC gets interim custody of Gali's copter

A local court in Hyderabad on Tuesday granted interim custody of Bell-407 helicopter to Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), owned by former Karnataka Tourism minister Gali Janardhan Reddy currently in jail in connection with an illegal mining case.

The Special CBI Court after verifying the evaluation reports of the copter asked CBI to give its interim custody to the OMC after production of personal bond for Rs 6.62 crore. The court asked OMC to produce a third party surety offering security of the immovable property for the said amount in favour of the court.
The court had earlier directed the OMC to produce purchase bill of the chopper to arrive at its present value for releasing it by taking guarantee of the sum equivalent to its present value.
The court also directed the petitioner not to alienate, transfer, encumber or change the physical state of the helicopter, which is lying in an aerodrome in Bangalore.
The CBI, probing the illegal mining case involving Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), had earlier opposed the release of the chopper and some luxury cars owned by Janardhan Reddy and OMC's Managing Director B V Srinivas Reddy.
The Reddys charge-sheeted along with three others in the OMC case in December 2011 had in February 2012 approached the special CBI court seeking release of the chopper and some cars that were seized by the investigating agency after their arrest.
However, the central agency had alleged that the helicopter and the cars that were bought in the name of the OMC and Reddys, were purchased through ill-gotten money that was made in the mining scam.
The court subsequently released the luxury cars after due process. Reddys are presently under judicial remand in Chanchalguda Jail here since their arrest on September 5, 2011 from Bellary.
PTI