It is now clear that the CBI maintained an utmost secrecy about the impending arrest of the mining mafia don and the former Karnataka minister Mr Gali Janardhan reddy in the early hours of Monday.

The special operation, planned and handled by CBI joint director Mr VV Lakshminarayana, was not known even to the Karnataka police chief Mr Achuta Rao. The SP of Bellary was informed of the ‘operation Gali’ only minutes before the arrest.

Reports said that some of the team members checked into a hotel late in the night in Bellary under fictitious names to keep their identity a top secret. The remaining team members, led by Lakshminarayana, left Hyderabad for Bellary the previous night in private vehicles.

In a text book precision operation, the first team which camped in the Bellary hotel, reached the house of Gali Janardhan reddy at 5.30 am with a heavy police force, woke him up to his disbelief and arrested him.

At the same time, the team headed by Lakshminarayana, landed in the house of B.V. Srinivas Reddy, MD, Obulapuram Mining Company and brother-in-law of Mr Janardhan Reddy in Shreenagar in Avambhavi locality.

Both of them were picked up at the same time and the two CBI teams launched the searches in the houses around the same time.

Then with heavy police escort, the CBI teams brought the duo to Hyderabad and produced them before the special CBI court. Both of them are now cooling their heels in the Chanchalguda jail.

The CBI told the court that it is investigating the Rs.20, 000 Cr illegal mining empire of the Janardhan reddy.