Srilakshmi didn't cooperate with probe: CBI

Hyderabad, Nov 29 (PTI) CBI, which secured the custody of senior IAS officer Yerra Srilakshmi in the illegal mining case related to Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) today, claimed in the remand application that she had not been cooperating, so a custodial questioning became necessary. After her arrest yesterday, she was produced before the special CBI court today, which remanded her to 3-day custody, directing CBI that she be produced on December 1 again. "She (Srilakshmi) is likely to disappear, go abroad and not cooperate with the investigation...as she, being an IAS officer and wife of an IPS officer is having lot of resources to do so," said the agency's remand plea. Srilakshmi, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare at present, is accused of being party to the conspiracy whereby OMC, owned by former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, was favoured when she was the secretary, Industries and Commerce department in 2007. CBI contended that Srilakshmi had been first questioned at her office yesterday, but she refused to cooperate and to give information about other officials, senior politicians and others accused who influenced her to ensure that OMC got mining leases. The IAS officer has been named as accused number four in the case, the other three being Gali Janardhan Reddy, OMC Managing Director B V Srinivas Reddy and the then mining and geology department director V D Rajagopal, all of them presently in jail. OMC got the mining leases in question when the late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, during 2004-2009. (More)