The writ petition no. 14116/07, Andhra Pradesh high court. A harmless petition against Gaali Janardhana Reddy, as it might have looked five years ago. Reddy was a king pin in the Bangalore political arena, he was the former Karnataka Tourism minister.

Tappala Shyamprasad (52) who had the original lease for the plot now in the hands of the Reddy Brothers, was the person who filed this complaint against them in 2007, for destroying the boundary pillars between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This is the same man who helped CBI build a case against the Bellary mining baron and a key witness in the issue.

Prasad’s 68.5 hectares of mining area in Malapanagudi of Ananthpur district was taken over by Reddys with a 35 per cent share promised to him. But nothing came back to Prasad as profits. Initially the Reddy brothers used to assure the returns shortly, but later they started to threaten Prasad using muscle power. He then filed a case in the AP high Court.

Frustrated for being treated shabbily and undergoing the brunt of financial losses created by the lease, Prasad took the Reddys head-on.  He supplied all documentary evidence to the CBI sleuths and was daring enough to record his statements as witness two months ago despite a threat to his life.

On Monday morning, when Janardhana Reddy was arrested by CBI from Bellary for “criminal conspiracy, cheating and destroying all boundary pillars between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh”, the 52-year old miner must have been the most satisfied man noting  developments at his home in Ananthpur. Prasad had said that God will never forget the wrong doers and he will definitely punish them.