IFS officer who was ‘whistleblower’ in mining case of BJP’s Bellary brothers is sacked

Kallol Biswas first rose to prominence when he was dealing with BJP leader Gali Janardhan Reddy’s mining firm OMC about a decade ago.

Gali Janardhana Reddy | ANI Photo

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has sacked 1991-batch Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Kallol Biswas, who had come to prominence after serving notices to notorious mining baron of Bellary and Karnataka BJP leader Gali Janardhana Reddy a decade ago.

This is the latest case of compulsory retirement of a senior officer in the two months of the second term of the Modi government.

According to government sources, the decision to compulsorily retire the Andhra Pradesh cadre officer Friday was taken on the basis of a report submitted by a committee headed by former chief secretary Dinesh Kumar a year ago.

The committee is said to have found some violations committed by Biswas when he was posted as the divisional forest officer, Anantapur, and was dealing with the controversial Reddy-owned Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), the sources said.

ThePrint couldn’t reach Biswas for comment.

‘Whistleblower’ officer

Biswas first rose to fame during his Anantapur posting almost a decade ago.

According to reports, he was the first officer in Andhra Pradesh who had sought to expose the alleged nexus between the Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy-led Congress government and Gali Janardhana Reddy’s mining business in Andhra Pradesh, and several alleged illegalities found by him were subsequently probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

In 2009, Biswas had reportedly served notices to OMC for suspending its mining licences, and subsequently received threats in person – after which he had to go underground.

“He was getting so many threats at that point that he stopped coming to work without informing the authorities – even that has been flagged by the committee report on him,” an IFS officer told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.

According to a local Telugu media report, Biswas had said at the time, “There were several unknown things happening in the mines of OMC both in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and that former CM YSR had stalled the survey of mines by the Survey of India as well, and also written to the Centre opposing such a move.”

The move to compulsorily retire Biswas comes months after the YSRCP government, led by Y.S.R. Reddy’s son Jagan Mohan, came to power in the state.

Since it won a second term two months back, the Modi government has sought to crack the whip on officials it sees as corrupt or non-performers, and compulsorily retire them.

Every year, state governments are supposed to furnish the names of two such officials and submit reports to the Centre on them. The Centre subsequently takes action against the officials.