New Delhi, August 19

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed former Karnataka minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy — accused in illegal mining cases — to visit Bellary district in Karnataka and Anantapur and Kadapa districts in Andhra Pradesh for eight weeks.

A Bench, led by Justice Vineet Saran, modified the top court’s 2015 order that prohibited from visiting these districts as a condition for granting him bail in a mining case. “Considering the facts and circumstances of the case and that the trial has not even commenced, and that petitioner has not violated any bail condition even when he visited Bellary, it is directed that the condition not to visit these three places in bail order be modified,” it said. — TNS