New Delhi, July 18
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa today firmly ruled out the removal of the Reddy brothers from the Cabinet in the wake of allegations of illegal mining against them.Yeddyurappa made the clarification after the Reddy brothers had a breakfast meeting with him at Karnataka Bhavan here today. Asked by reporters whether he was giving a clean chit to the mining barons, he said “101 per cent. There is no charge against them. There is no evidence against them. Let the opposition go to the High Court,” he said.

The CM said he would write to the Karnataka Lok Ayukta Santosh Hegde tomorrow seeking investigation in all cases of illegal mining since 2002.

He further said that in no way, the brothers were responsible for illegal mining. Whatever mining they were doing was in Andhra Pradesh, not in Karnataka, the CM insisted.

The charges were political in nature as the Congress and the JD(S) had leveled them without any documents or any other evidence, Yeddyurappa said. Tourism Minister Janardhan Reddy said he and Revenue Minister Karunakar apprised BJP leader Sushma Swaraj of all the developments.

Earlier, Yeddyurappa has met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and senior leader LK Advani regarding the issue.