Fifteen years on, the spectre of the Obulapuram Mining Company scandal still looms large, refusing to let her go.
Published May 11, 2025 | 11:46 AM ⚊ Updated May 11, 2025 | 11:46 AM
A 1988-batch IAS officer, Srilakshmi was just 22 when she began her career in the then-undivided Andhra Pradesh.
Synopsis: Just when she thought the long-pending Obulapuram Mining Company scam was behind her, senior IAS officer Y Srilakshmi now faces renewed scrutiny after the Supreme Court ordered the Telangana High Court to rehear her discharge plea. The directive came just days after a CBI court sentenced Gali Janardhan Reddy and others, reigniting a scandal that has cast a shadow over her career for more than a decade.
Senior IAS officer Y Srilakshmi’s life reads has been a tale of ambition tangled in the thorns of scandal.
Just when she thought the long-pending Obulapuram Mining Company scam case was a fading shadow, the Supreme Court’s order a few days ago to reopen her discharge petition in the Telangana High Court must have hit her like a bolt from the blue.
Interestingly, the Supreme Court verdict came a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court delivered its judgment in the case in respect of others – seven years sentencing for Gali Janardhan Reddy and three others, and acquittal for the then mines minister P Sabita Indra Reddy and one other person.
In a heartbeat, Srilakshmi’s long, gruelling battle to escape from the jaws of the case is back to square one.
The apex court directed the High Court to rehear her petition from scratch, unswayed by the 2022 ruling that had cleared her name.
Fifteen years on, the spectre of the OMC scandal still looms large, refusing to let her go.
A 1988-batch IAS officer, Srilakshmi was just 22 when she began her career in the then-undivided Andhra Pradesh, a prodigy brimming with promise.
Her steely resolve shone in the districts, where she stood firm against political pressures, earning a reputation as a no-nonsense officer with a spine of steel.
The highway of her career was very smooth. As she joined the IAS at a young age, her fraternity often discussed the possibility of her even becoming Cabinet Secretary.
But the tide turned against her when YS Rajasekhara Reddy’s reign began in 2004. Initially, the going was fine, but soon she got entangled in the Obulapuram Mining Company scam.
The storm broke after Reddy’s sudden death in a 2009 helicopter crash, mere months after his second-term victory.
In 2011, the CBI pounced, charging Srilakshmi, then Secretary for Industries and Commerce, with showing undue favour to OMC, owned by Gali Janardhan Reddy, in allotting iron ore mines in Anantapur district.
The CBI alleged that she deliberately omitted the term “captive mining” in the final order, allowing OMC to mine and export iron ore meant for a steel factory Janardhan Reddy had planned in Kadapa.
The move, they claimed, reeked of favouritism tied to the YSR family’s influence.
Arrested in 2011, Srilakshmi’s world crumbled. She endured about 10 months in jail, her once-bright career tarnished by her proximity to the YSR clan and Janardhan Reddy.
At the time, no one – not even she – could have foreseen how this scandal would seal her fate.
As her life began to stabilise, the 2014 bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh forced a choice.
Wary of working under Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh, she opted for the Telangana cadre, settling in Hyderabad under the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS, now Bharat Rashtra Samithi or BRS) government.
Whispers grew that she had acted at YSR’s behest and, after his death, aligned with Jagan Mohan Reddy’s camp, which made her a persona non grata for Naidu.
The wheel of fortune spun again in 2019 when Jagan Mohan Reddy swept to power in Andhra Pradesh.
Srilakshmi, reportedly with Jagan’s backing, sought and secured a transfer to the Andhra Pradesh cadre.
Her plum postings under his regime fuelled suspicions of her increasing loyalty to the YSR family, further alienating the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
But fate, fickle as ever, turned once more. The 2024 elections saw Naidu’s TDP storm back to power, crushing Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party.
For Srilakshmi, the downfall of Jagan Mohan Reddy upset her apple cart, which she had carefully reassembled after going through a harrowing time.
When she met Naidu alongside other officers after the TDP won the election, his response was very cold.
He did not even accept the bouquet she offered, a stinging rebuke in full view. Since December 2024, Srilakshmi has been sidelined, without a posting, her career teetering on the edge.
The reopening of her discharge petition looms as her immediate hurdle, but the bigger question that lingers is: when, if ever, will her fortunes smile once again?
Srilakshmi’s story is a cautionary tale etched in the annals of bureaucracy. It screams one truth: an Indian Administrative Service officer must tread carefully, never cosying up too close to one political camp nor earning the enmity of another.
In the unpredictable nature of the tides of power, no one knows who will hold the reins tomorrow and who will be relegated to history’s dustbin.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
