Ex-India minister arrested in graft case

BANGALORE: Police in India's southern state of Karnataka on Monday arrested mining baron and former state minister G. Janardhana Reddy over a massive mining scandal.

An ombudsman said in July that illegal iron-ore mining had cost the public exchequer 160 billion rupees ($3.6 billion) from 2006 to 2010 and recommended that the then chief minister of Karnataka state B.S. Yeddyurappa be prosecuted.

Corruption at all levels of Indian public life has risen to the top of the political agenda, with millions of people rallying across the country last month in support of Anna Hazare, an anti-graft hunger striker.

Reddy's arrest followed a pre-dawn swoop by detectives on his office and home searching for documents related to alleged bribery and illegal mining in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh.

"A Central Bureau of Investigation team from Hyderabad arrested Janardhana Reddy from his house under the Prevention of Corruption Act," a senior police official told AFP.

Reddy was infrastructure development minister of Karnataka from 2008 to 2011 in the Bharatiya Janata Party state government headed by Yeddyurappa, who resigned in July over the alleged mining scam.

Hazare's 13-day fast, which drew some concessions from the government over a new anti-graft law, tapped into public anger over the daily bribes required for everything from driving licences to access to hospital care. (AFP)