Moving swiftly, CBI has served notice on senior IAS officer M.G.V.K Bhanu asking him to appear before it on Nov 17 in Hyderabad for questioning in the illegal mining case registered against mining mafia don Gali Janardhan reddy and also in the illegal properties case of YSR congress chief Mr YS Jaganmohan reddy.

Mr Bhanu, the Man Friday of the late YSR, is presently the chairman of the Tea Board of India and belongs to the Assam cadre. He is also reportedly very close to the Rajya Sabha MP Mr KVP Ramachandra Rao.

Bhanu worked as the special secretary in the CMO during the YSR regime and his word was considered as the word of the CM by all officials in those days. At the instance of YSR, he stuck on to his CMO job for a longer period despite the Centre’s request to the state government to send him to Delhi for taking the Central Government’s assignments. 

Reports said that CBI will grill Bhanu based on the affidavit given by Konda reddy who was forced to lose his mining leases to Gali Janardhan reddy. Mr Bhanu handled major departments like irrigation, infrastructure and investment, besides projects like Vanpic.