AP judge suspended for taking bribe
He offered CBI judge Rs 10 cr to release Reddy
Yet another judge has been suspended by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in the bail-for-cash scam.
District Judge D Prabhakar Rao, who was removed from his elevated position as legal secretary to the state Election Commission and shunted as a family court judge in far off Srikakulam, was suspended even before joining his new position on Friday.
The High Court recalled D Prabhakar Rao after his name figured in the recent confessions of the accused in the cash-for-bail case involving OMC mining scam accused Gali Janardhana Reddy.
CBI court judge T Pattabhirama Rao who gave bail to Reddy is already in jail along with his son Ravichandra, retired sessions judge T V Chalapathi Rao and a rowdy-sheeter Yadagiri. The BJP legislators of Karnataka Somasekhar Reddy and Suresh Babu are yet to be arrested.
Judge Pattabhirama Rao is now in Chanchalguda jail following an FIR against him and the high court had rejected his plea for special status on the ground that he had made a mockery of the judiciary. Now, the judge is being tried as an ordinary criminal in the same court he had benched earlier.
During their confessions in the custody of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which is investigating the case, the accused Yadagiri revealed that a offer of Rs 10 crore for bail of mining baron Janardhana Reddy had come from Prabhakar Rao but was declined by Pattabhirama Rao who accepted the offer of Rs 5 crore made through retired judge and Pattabhi’s friend Chalapathi Rao.
Pattabhirama Rao told his investigators during police custody that he had accepted Chalapathi Rao’s offer as he trusted him. In another case of bribe for bail, the judge confessed to have accepted a bribe of Rs 5 lakhs for granting bail to tainted Deputy Superintendent of Police Sarveswar Reddy who was also arrested in a disproportionate assets case and tried in his court last year.
Cash seized
The police also seized huge cash from the home of rowdy-sheeter Yadagiri after his custodial interrogation early this week.
The ACB, in its remand report said that rowdy-sheeter P Yadagiri Rao who acted as a conduit in the bribe-for-bail case had got Rs 9.5 crore of which he gave only a part of the amount to Chalapathi Rao and others, retaining the rest.
The ACB team recovered the cash in bundles of thousand rupee denominations, hidden in the loft of the puja room of Yadagiri’s house besides seizing four cellphones, a laptop and a new car that he had purchased using the bribe money.
Courting crisis
* District Judge D Prabhakar Rao who was earlier removed from his elevated position as legal secretary to the state Election Commission and shunted as a family court judge.
* High Court recalls D Prabhakar Rao after his name figured in the recent confessions of the accused in the cash-for-bail case involving OMC mining scam accused and former Karnataka tourism minister Gali Janardhana Reddy.
* Another Central Bureau of Investigation court judge T Pattabhirama Rao who gave bail to Gali Janardhana Reddy is already in jail along with his son Ravichandra.
* Pattabhirama Rao is now in Chanchalguda jail following an FIR against him and the high court had rejected his plea for special status on the ground that he had made a mockery of the judiciary.
