Another key official in the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday. The director of OMC B Rajasekhar was arrested by the CBI at Bellary in Karnataka. He is the fifth accused to be arrested in the high-profile case and this latest arrest came just a couple of days before the CBI is to file a charge sheet in the court.

A CBI official said the investigating agency arrested Rajasekhar at Bellary in Karnataka. They were bringing him to Hyderabad to present him before the court. Former Karnataka minister G. Janardhana Reddy, his brother-in-law and OMC managing director B.V. Srinivasa Reddy, former state mines director V.D. Rajagopal and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official Y. Srilakshmi are already in the jail.

Rajasekhar is brother-in-law of Rajagopal, the former managing director of the Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) already in jail. According to CBI officials, Rajagopal and Srilakshmi showed undue favours to OMC by granting leases for iron ore mining in Anantapur district. Srilakshmi was secretary of industries department in late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's government when OMC was granted mining lease. All the accused are currently lodged in Chanchalguda Central Jail here.