Cash-for-bail: Janardhan Reddy remanded in judicial custody till October 5

Former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy was on Tuesday produced before an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court, which ordered him in judicial custody till October 5 in the cash-for-bail bribery case.

Lodged in a Bangalore jail in connection with the illegal mining case, the mining baron was brought on transit warrant and produced before the ACB court. The court directed that Reddy and the other accused be produced before it, after it took cognisance of the charge sheet filed by Andhra Pradesh ACB against seven persons, for attempting to bribe the suspended special CBI court judge T Pattabhirama Rao for granting bail to Reddy in Obulapuram Mining Company case.

Names of two district judges, K Lakshminarasimha Rao and T Prabhakar Rao, who were suspended, also figure in the charge sheet. Other accused in the case include Janardhan's brother and Bellary city MLA Gali Somashekhar Reddy, Kampli MLA TH Suresh Babu, Dasaratha Ram Reddy (Reddy's relative), who were also produced before the court. Suryaprakash Babu, another accused, who is out on bail, also appeared before the court.

On August 13, the ACB had filed its first charge sheet against Pattabhirama Rao and seven others for entering into a conspiracy to facilitate bail to Janardhan Reddy. The second charge sheet was filed on September 6 pertaining to the second case registered by the ACB over attempts to bribe Pattabhirama Rao.

After the ACB court remanded him in judicial custody, Reddy was shifted to Chanchalguda Central Jail. It was in Chanchlaguda Jail that Reddy spent six months in the Obulapuram mining case before being shifted to Bangalore this March in connection with another illegal mining case. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested Janardhana Reddy last September 5 from Bellary in the case, which involved illegal mining of iron ore in Anantapur district of AP. Obulapuram managing director BV Srinivasa Reddy, IAS officer Y Srilakshmi and former director of mines VD Rajagopal were also arrested in the case.