The Central Crime Branch police arrested mining czar and former minister Gali Janardhana Reddy in connection with the Rs 600-crore Ambidant Marketing Ponzi case. The rise and fall of J. Reddy were spectacular. Reddy became one of the state’s most influential politicians and a leading businessman but also spent four years in jail, charged with plundering the state’s natural wealth. Reddy first appeared on the political scene in Ballari, managing with B Sreeramulu, then a budding politician, the electoral contest between Sushma Swaraj and then AICC president Sonia Gandhi in 1999. A small-time businessman with a finance firm, Reddy made a fortune after entering the mining business. In 2008, Reddy became a minister in the first ever BJP government in the south headed by B S Yeddyurappa. This helped him establish an iron grip on mining and politics in Ballari Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde indicted Reddy and Yeddyurappa in his report on illegal mining, Yeddyurappa had to step down and his successor DV Sadanand Gowda kept Reddy and Sriramulu out of his cabinet. The CBI arrested Reddy on September 5, 2011, and the Karnataka police also filed a case against him. After nearly four years in jail, Reddy obtained bail in January 2015 on the condition that he keep away from Ballari district.