Mining Baron Gali Janardhan Reddy to Celebrate Dussera in Bellary After 6 Years, Political Revival on Cards

New Delhi: Mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy has been allowed to visit his hometown Bellary — a reprieve which may help his political revival ahead of 2018 Assembly elections.

After denying him permission several times since his alleged involvement in the mining scam cases, the Supreme Court relented on Friday and permitted Reddy to stay in Bellary for three days.

The court had on September 4 dismissed Reddy's similar plea to enter Bellary, while refusing to relax the conditions of bail.

But on Friday, a bench led by Justice AK Sikri allowed yet another application by Reddy with not much opposition from the CBI coming forth.

"We allow the petitioner-applicant to visit Bellary from 29.09.2017 to 01.10.2017 as he wants to perform necessary rituals and to participate in the celebration of the festival of Dussera along with his family members," said the bench in its order.

The court order is expected to help Reddy, who has been vying for political revival ever since he was released on bail by the bench in January 2015. He was arrested in 2011 in connection with illegal mining cases.

One of the conditions of the bail, however, was that he would not enter Bellary, Anantpuram and Cuddapah.

Earlier, Reddy was granted permission by the court only on certain expedient situations, including once when his mother was seriously ill.

Reddy made many unsuccessful attempts before the top court, first in November 2015 and two subsequent endeavours to get this bail condition relaxed but to no avail.

The CBI then raised objections citing his involvement in the iron ore mining scam spread across Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The BJP leaders in the state told CNN-News18 that Reddy had been waiting for this relief to start his second innings in politics.

One of them added that it would be difficult to ignore Reddy's claims when the BJP has appointed former chief minister, BS Yeddyurappa as president of its state unit despite several cases of corruption pending against him.

The mining baron is said to have bankrolled the 2008 Assembly and 2009 Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka, which saw the ascendance of the party in the state with Yeddyurappa becoming chief minister.