BENGALURU:
A special court in Bengaluru has issued an order attaching 77 properties belonging to former Karnataka BJP minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy and five belonging to his wife Lakshmi Aruna, pending the investigation into an illegal mining and ore export case.
The order dated June 12 was passed by Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Jayantha Kumar of the Special MP/MLA Court, while the petition filed by CBI has been in progress since 2015. The agency had sought the attachment of 124 properties belonging to the couple.
According to the prosecution, Reddy had obtained a majority of the properties in the listed schedules through proceeds of offences, and thus, they should be attached in order to prevent him from alienating or disposing them of before the end of the proceedings.
Reddy’s counsel argued that attachment should only be done in case the prosecution knew how the properties were obtained. The counsel said the prosecution had not shown exactly how the offence and property were connected, and pointed out that the properties were acquired before the alleged offence. It was also argued that an Enforcement Directorate order of attachment had earlier been set aside.
While the offence was allegedly committed between January 1, 2009, and May 31, 2010, the court attached the properties obtained after January 1. The court did not accept Lakshmi Aruna’s argument that she was not an accused as she had failed to prove a sufficiently separate income from the alleged money proceeding from the offence.
The court also noted that the attachment could have been avoided by providing security. It said, “Neither the respondent nor the objector has applied seeking permission to give security in lieu of such attachment and offered to give security to the satisfaction of this Court. The respondent and objector could have avoided the attachment order by furnishing security to the satisfaction of this Court. They have not made any attempt.”
Based on this, the petition was decided partially in favour of CBI, with the properties to be attached until the matter is decided. PTI
