K. Mehfuz Ali Khan, the seventh-accused in the illegal mining case of Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), moved the CBI Court here on Tuesday seeking bail on the grounds that he was a stranger to the case and was not the personal assistant of former Minister of Karnataka Gali Janardhan Reddy as alleged by the CBI.
A petition filed by Mr. Ali Khan’s counsel said neither did his name figure in the FIR nor were there any charges levelled against him. Further, there was no mention of his name in the charge-sheet filed against the first five accused including Mr. Reddy and the one against the suspended IAS officer Y. Srilakshmi, the sixth-accused.
The charge-sheets did not reveal any incriminating material or criminal elements against him and it was making amply clear that he was a stranger to the facts of the case.
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The CBI had got him into judicial custody without any well-founded charges against him, Mr. Ali Khan pleaded in his petition.
Mr. Ali Khan stated that he was an engineering graduate, completed his course in 2008 and was from a respectable business family and had Rs. 50 crore business turnover every year. The case against OMC was registered in 2009 and he was aware of it through newspaper reports.
The judge posted the case to January 10 and the bail petitions of Y. Srilakshmi and V.D. Rajagopal to January 9.
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