As soon as former minister B Sriramulu, who was in Delhi, got a whiff of CBI officials bringing OMC managing director Srinivas Reddy to Bellary on Friday, he rushed back to Bellary.
He landed at Jindal Airport on Friday night, sources said. Ever since the arrest of G Janardhana Reddy and Srinivas Reddy, Sriramulu has evaded the media and his followers in Bellary.
But according to sources, he had flown to Delhi to meet Amma, BJP senior leader Sushma Swaraj, and other party big-wigs.
On reaching Bellary, he enquired about Srinivas’ security and other facilities provided to him. Around 2.30pm, he called a press meet. He said, “I have just returned from Delhi.”
“I am not a person who will resign for small reasons. There is no point in taking the resignation back. I haven’t got any notice from CBI officials. I respect the law. If the CBI sends me a notice, I will cooperate with them, lending all support to the investigation. I will give the explanation to speaker in two days,” he added.
“I resigned from the Moka Vishana Sabha constituency on my own. The speaker did ask for clarifications, which I will make in the next two days on meeting him personally,” he said.
Sriramulu further said that his resignation was not a drama and so there was no question of withdrawing it.
“In the 25 years of my public life, this is the first time my name has been tainted (through the Lok Ayukta second mining report). I resigned due to my self-respect,” he said.
“I was not part of any kind of illegal mining. But my name figured in the Lok Ayukta report. I will meet former Lok Ayuka Justice N Santosh Hedge to discuss this. Maybe he can tell me my mistakes so I can try and overcome it. I have lot of respect for Hegde. I was the first BJP minister to put pressure on the government to accept the Lok Ayukta report,” Sriramulu said.
The former minister insisted that he wasn’t in hiding. “The news of me absconding is not true. I was in Delhi and returned on Friday night,” he said.
“No farmer in Bellary was ever a part of iron-ore mining. Due to the ban of mining activity in the city, over five lakh people have lost their jobs. Some farmers have committed suicide.
The Supreme Court and the government should permit legal iron-ore digging. If not, the labourers, employees and indirect dependents will suffer,” Sriramulu said.
Corporator Ibrahim Babu was also present at the press meet on Saturday.
