Reddys face axe if tax evasion case filed against them: BJP

SHIMOGA - Mining barons Reddy brothers will be dropped from the B.S. Yeddyurappa ministry in Karnataka the moment a criminal case is filed against them for alleged evasion of income tax, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief K.S. Eshwarappa said Monday.

“The moment a criminal case is filed against them, they will be dropped,” Eshwarappa told reporters in Shimoga, about 270 km from Bangalore.

However, he said, he was confident that the brothers Tourism Minister G. Janaradhana Reddy and his elder brother Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy, will come clean out of the allegations of tax evasion.

The Reddy brothers, who own the Obulapuram Mining Company, are reported to have evaded income tax of Rs.86 crore selling iron ore at low rate to a one-dollar Singapore company and later re-exporting it at a higher rate.

Janardhana Reddy has acknowledged he was a director of the one-dollar company, so called as it was registered in Singapore with merely one dollar as its capital.

They Reddys have not reacted to reports of tax evasion or to the Congress demand for their sacking over the allegation.

The Congress submitted a memorandum to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj Dec 28 urging him to sack the Reddy brothers as well as their associate Health Minister B. Sriramulu from the ministry for tax evasion.

Bhardwaj himself has been demanding that Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa take action against the Reddy brothers for alleged illegal mining of iron ore.

The Reddy brothers have denied illegal mining.

Though OMC owns iron ore mines in Andhra Pradesh, the Reddys are accused of large scale illegal mining in Karnataka’s iron-ore rich Bellary district, about 300 km from Bangalore, which is also their political base.

The brothers had almost brought the Yeddyurappa ministry down by their rebellion in November-December 2009.