Court orders criminal proceedings against minister Nagendra, Janardhana Reddy in illegal mining case

BALLARI: A special court for elected representatives in Bengaluru has ordered criminal proceedings and issued summons against Youth Services, Sports, and ST Welfare Minister B Nagendra, Gangavati MLA G Janardhana Reddy and eight others for causing losses to the state treasury through illegal mining.

With this, Nagendra has earned the dubious distinction of being the first minister in the new Congress government led by Siddaramaiah to be facing criminal proceedings.

Special court magistrate Preeth J issued the orders in a private complaint filed by the Lokayukta investigating officer. The judge ordered that cases be registered under sections of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act and summons be issued to G Janardhana Reddy, Mehfooz Ali Khan, Madhukar Varma, B Nagendra, K Nagaraju, V Chandrashekar, C Srikanth, Devi Enterprises, Madhushree Enterprises and Eagle Traders and Logistics.

The court has posted the case for further hearing on July 26. As per the case, the accused sold 22,282 tons of iron ore illegally, causing a loss of Rs 2,81,72,322 to the state exchequer.