Golden utensils, private bomb shelter, diamond-studded throne: How rich is Janardhan Reddy, man behind the LCD wedding invite?
Mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy went viral this week for the outrageously fancy invitations to his daughter's wedding. Little do people know about his history with extraordinary riches.
Mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy went viral on Wednesday for the outrageously fancy wedding invitations he sent out for his daughter's wedding.
Popularly known as "Bellari King", the businessman turned politician is being investigated by the CBI for corruption and other criminal cases. Clearly unfazed by the charges, Reddy sent out LCD screen laden wedding invitations for his daughter Bramhani's November wedding.
The LCD played an elaborate video of Reddy, his wife and the prospective bride and groom singing and dancing. The groom is dramatically introduced with white stallions in the backdrop. Bramhani's wedding is even expected to feature celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Prabhudeva and Katrina Kaif, much like the start-studded engagement ceremony that happened last month.
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So who exactly is Janardhan Reddy and how did he come about to be so powerful? Here's all you need to know:
THE TREASURE RECOVERED FROM HIS HOME
#1 Reddy, 49, was once among the most powerful men in Karnataka. He spent three years in jail on charges of illegal mining, and was released on bail just last year.
#2 Soft-spoken and polite to a fault, Janardhan reportedly believed himself to be a reincarnation of 14th century Vijayanagar king Krishnadeva Raya.
#3 When CBI raided him in 2011, Reddy owned a three-storey house, which included an office, indoor swimming pool facing a 70 mm screen, massage parlour, a bar, home theatre, and even a bomb shelter. CCTV covered at least half a kilometre of area around the house and another three layers of security surrounded the house.
#4 Gold-plated utensils including plates, bowls, spoons, forks, knives, cups, pots and even ashtrays and lighters were recovered from his house. Weighing more than 30 kg, their worth was estimated to be Rs 20.87 lakh. Rs 3 crore worth of cash stuffed in bags was also recovered.
#5 45 necklaces, 610 gold bangles (35 of which were diamond encrusted), 300 pairs of ear-rings (75 with diamonds), 1,200 gold rings (100 with diamonds), several bracelets, antique and platinum jewellery, were seized from his home.
#6 A 'throne' weighing a whopping 15 kg was recovered from Reddy. It was made of gold, had GJR monogrammed in diamonds and was worth at least Rs 2.2 crore. Reddy is said to have gotten himself 'crowned' on the throne, in a secret ceremony in Hampi town.
He had donated a similar throne, worth Rs 43 crore, to the Tirupati temple.
#7 Reddy owned a Rolls Royce, a Range Rover, a Land Rover, a Mercedes Benz, an Audi, a BMW and over a dozen Scorpios and Boleros and even a custom-made bus. When he wasn't riding in his cars, he was flying in his Bell helicopter, nicknamed Rukmini. Its helipad was right opposite the house, and some reported that a helipad was in the house as well.
#8 Reddy's shirts reportedly had gold thread interwoven into them, making each shirt worth at least Rs 1 lakh. He wore a jewel-encrusted belt worth Rs 13 lakh and carried a gold-plated BlackBerry.
#9 A one-foot-tall idol of Lord Venkateswara and another six inch idol of Padmavati, both made of solid gold, among various other gold idols were found stored in a pooja room in his home. Their worth was estimated at Rs 2.3 crore. A gold bell weighing 1 kg was also recovered.
THE EXTENT OF HIS EMPIRE
#1 Under the Reddy empire between 2007 to 2010, 29.8 million tonnes of illegal iron ore -- valued at Rs 12,228 crore -- was sent to eight ports on both coasts of the country from Karnataka. About 12.7 million tonnes of illegal iron ore was also exported to countries like China, Brazil, Singapore and Hong Kong.
#2 Reddy and his brothers earned an estimated Rs 5,000 crore from these deals, with the money suspected to be salted away in tax havens, including the Isle of Man. The mining baron admitted to earning Rs 5 crore per day himself.
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#3 Ore was shipped under false documentation across the world and Reddy's informal 'army' guarded every consignment, while reporting to him constantly.
#4 More than 20 henchmen associated with him were also raided, some of whom went underground, leaving behind wives, children, clerks and watchmen to answer the investigators.
#5 Reddy encroached upon private, revenue and forest lands, using threats, bribes and muscle power, and he systematically subverted government machinery for mining. Legitimate mine owners had to pay Janardhan 30 to 40 per cent of the consignment's market rate as 'risk money' to transport legal ore.
#6 "The district administration, police, revenue, mines and forest officials were all on Janardhan's payroll, working as his employees, rather than the government's," mine owner and Congress MLA Santosh Lad had told India Today.
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HIS CLOUT
#1 "We went into his shackles even before the BJP government was formed in Karnataka. He had clout with our national leadership, with Sushma and Nitin Gadkari openly endorsing him. Our then Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa was helpless in his hands," a senior Karnataka minister had told India Today in 2011.
#2 "If some land with ore caught Reddy's eye, the owners had to quietly give it up. They were lucky if he paid them something for it," a top BJP leader had admitted to India Today at the time.
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#3 Reddy's political and economic tied extended to New Delhi via the BJP national leadership; and Andhra Pradesh through former Congress chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy and his son Jagan Mohan Reddy.
#4 Janardhan's inner circle explained the mining baron's objective was to see his brother Karunakar as the Chief Minister of Karnataka. His bigger plan, allegedly, was to make his former mentor Sushma Swaraj, the Prime Minister.
TIME IN PRISON
#1 It was a report by Karnataka's former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, that helped authorities nab Reddy. Five of his officers put together the damning 8,000-page report, working undercover for evidence and correlating 40 lakh bank accounts that led to Janardhan or his wife. "What Janardhan ran was a dictatorship," Justice Hegde told India Today at the time.
#2 The 'Lord of Bellary' was initially locked up in a small cell without even an attached bathroom at the Chanchalaguda prison in Hyderabad.
#3 Many believed Reddy had been 'cursed' by Goddess Suggalamma whose century-old temple he demolished in 2006 for his Obulapuram Mining Corporation. The temple lay on the border between Bellary and Ananthapur district in Andhra Pradesh, and by blasting it, Reddy was able to blur the border and illegally mine in Karnataka.
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#4 Once he was jailed, farmers began trying to reclaim their land lost to mining. Bellary's new deputy commissioner also started receiving tips -- at all hours of the day, from ordinary people -- about illegal movement of iron ore.
#5 More than 700 officials, including the then deputy commissioner of Bellary B Shivappa, were named in the Lokayukta report for colluding with Janardhan. Details of the Reddy's 'mafia' are the reason Yeddyurappa lost his chief ministerial job.
#6 "It is the Supreme Court that saved us. Neither the state, nor the Centre bothered to do so," mine owner Tapal Ekambaram told India Today. Ekambaram had filed the first private case against Reddy.
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