The CBI court of Hyderabad today granted special prisoner status to the former Karnataka Minister Mr Gali Janardhan reddy and his brother in law Mr BV Srinivasa reddy.

The court order comes as a considerable relief to the mining dons who are in Chanchalguda jail as ordinary prisoners ever since their arrest on Sept 5 in the illegal mining case.

Both of them will now be treated as A category prisoners and will be given separate rooms with all facilities. Gali and Srinivasa reddy filed separate petitions seeking special prisoner status in tune with their standing in the society.

CBI opposed their plea arguing that Gali Janardhan reddy was an ordinary person before he launched his mining operations and didn’t deserve A category status while the counsel for the accused requested the court to grant the special status as they were business men by profession.

Meanwhile, Gali Janardhan reddy and Srinivasa reddy again filed fresh petitions in the CBI court seeking bail.