Bangalore:
Amid speculation about whether they will be asked to quit office, Janardhana and Karunakara Reddy have demanded an apology for a report on illegal mining that indicts them.
The Reddys, mining barons from Bellary, are senior ministers in Karnataka. They've been accused of corruption and misusing their offices in the report prepared by Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde. However, the Reddy brothers say that Mr Hegde has got his facts incorrect. They want him to issue a public apology "to the state of Karnataka before he retires as Lokayukta early next week."
The report says that the Obulapuram Mining Company -which included the Reddys as directors - violated mining laws. However, Karunakara Reddy said today that it's incorrect that his brother, he or their close associate Health Minister B Sreeamulu were directors at the time of the alleged misconduct.
"This is totally false," said Karunakara Reddy. "I have great respect for Hegde as he worked as a Supreme Court judge. When he became the Lokayukta, I had great respect too. But he has hurt me with these false reports."
Mr Reddy says he is consulting his legal advisers about what action to take. Karunakara Reddy is the state's Revenue Minister; his brother is Tourism Minister. Their wealth and power in Bellary is believed to have played a considerable role in BJP leader Sushma Swaraj's election from the same area.
Mr Hegde says that though the Reddys say their mining interests are limited to Andhra Pradesh, they operate in Karnataka largely through a maze of front companies. He also believes that they deliberately under-invoiced the iron ore they exported to a company they own in Singapore. Mr Hegde says the Reddys were able to save 215 crores as a result, and they parked this money in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands and the Isle of Man.