'CEC report exposes mining blemish on Karunakara, Sriramulu'

But Reddy and Health Minister Sriramulu had served on the board of directors of OMC in the past and had transferred their shares in the OMC to Tourism Minister Janardhana Reddy in January last year.

Congress leader V S Ugrappa, on Monday, released documents to the press to suggest that both Karunakara Reddy and Sriramulu were directors and shareholders of the company during the period in which the company was involved in illegal mining, as per the CEC report.

According to the documents obtained from the Company Secretary, Karunakara Reddy and Sriramulu transferred their shares, 18,000 each, to Janardhana Reddy on January 8, 2010.
Karunakara Reddy had served as director between May 2002 and February 2004. Similarly,

Sriramulu was a director between May 2002 and May 2008. Ugrappa said Karunakara Reddy couldn’t escape from the charges made by the CEC, on the grounds that he was not associated with the company.

He had held shares of the company and also served as director when the company illegally extracted and exported two crore tonnes of iron ore. The exported ore is worth over Rs 3,000 crore.

BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Yeddyurappa, had supported the Reddys in their illegal activities. The Reddys and Yeddyurappa should resign owning moral responsibility, he demanded.

However, Karunakara Reddy, on Monday reiterated that he had nothing to do with the OMC and its illegal mining, as pointed out by the Central Empowered Committee constituted by the Supreme Court. He said he was never associated with the company.

The media and leaders of the Opposition were under the wrong impression, Reddy said.