Hyderabad: The Telangana high court will on Wednesday pronounce its order on the pleas for bail as well as stay on the conviction and sentence awarded to Karnataka’s former minister and current MLA Gali Janardhan Reddy in the Obulapuram illegal mining case. Gali and three others were sentenced to seven years’ in jail recently in the illegal mining case filed by the CBI. On Tuesday, Justice K Lakshman heard the arguments for and against the pleas filed by the convicts. Appearing for Gali, senior counsel S Nagamuthu pointed out that following the conviction, Gali stood disqualified from his legislator’s post. The assembly secretary had also issued a notification stating that the post of legislator was vacant and the Election Commission was preparing to announce a bypoll, the senior counsel said while seeking a stay on his conviction and sentence to ensure Gali does not lose his MLA seat.The advocates for other convicts – Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) MD BV Srinivas Reddy, AP’s former director of mines and geology department V D Rajagopal and Gali’s personal assistant Mehfuz Ali Khan – also sought similar relief for their respective clients. The judge said he would pronounce orders in all the cases on Wednesday.
