Mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy’s personal assistant K Mehfuz Ali Khan on Friday told a court that he was being implicated in the Obulapuram illegal mining case. Ali Khan was brought from a prison in Bengaluru and produced before the special court for CBI cases in the city.
He was sent to judicial remand till October 17.
Clad in a white kurta and jeans with a skull cap, Ali Khan stood before special court judge Durga Prasad Rao with folded hands. The judge asked Ali Khan whether he was ill-treated by the police while he was brought to the city from Bengaluru to which he said ‘no'.
The judge allowed Ali Khan to speak when he requested. “I have been implicated in the case. The CBI has recorded statements of 205 persons as witnesses. None of them spoke a word about me. It also asked me to appear before it to record 161 statement. Instead of recording the statement at the CBI office in Bengaluru, they took me to the Income Tax office. They misguided me and wrongly implicated me,’’ Ali Khan went on saying before he was stopped by the judge who asked him to approach the court through his lawyer.
Meanwhile, the CBI filed a petition seeking Ali Khan’s custody, and the matter was posted for Monday. The CBI said it had searched the premises of the Devi Enterprises, owned by Ali Khan, and seized incriminating documents and materials.
“The scrutiny of the documents have established the role of Ali Khan. He played a vital role in maintaining records pertaining to Gali Janardhan Reddy and the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC),’’ the CBI said.
Many witnesses confirmed that Ali Khan had compelled them to sell iron ore at a lower rate, the investigative agency contended.
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