Prisoner No 697 completes a day

For his food, Reddy stood in the queue like other prisoners

“The court directed us to treat the former Karnataka minister and his accomplice like any other undertrial and not afforded any special treatment,” a jail official said.
Janardhana Reddy and Obulapuram Mining Company Managing Director Srinivas Reddy will undergo the mandatory observation period of 24 hours at the undertrials barrack.

A decision to allot a specific cell will be taken only on Tuesday night.

While securing bail for the Reddy and his associate seems to be an uphill task for the legal team, the mining king, who used to helihop from Bellary to Bangalore only to have breakfast, had to content with khichdi (a mixture of rice and dal and a sprinkle of vegetables) at the jail on Tuesday morning.

The prisoners were served the normal quantity of lunch that undertrials are entitled to, i.e., 600 gm rice, 100 gm dal and 250 gm vegetable curry.
Like other undertrials, Janardhana Reddy stood in the queue for food, washed his own plate. He will also have to wash his clothes and sweep the surroundings at the dormitory.

“However, the undertrials will be allowed to wear the normal dress they were wearing at the time of arrest. In due course of time, they could be asked to change to the jail uniform,” the Chanchalguda jail officials added.

The duo were arrested by CBI early Monday in Bellary for his company’s alleged role in illegal mining in Andhra Pradesh. They were brought to Hyderabad and remanded to judicial custody till September  19.

According to Chanchalguda Central Jail Superintendent Keshav Naidu, the duo spent the night in the barracks of the reception block and had a long chat before they slept.

The mining magnate and his kin will be shifted to another barrack, unless their lawyers seek and get special class prisoner status for them. Till then, they will have to share the barracks with other petty offenders.

Janardhana Reddy is the third most famous prisoner at Chanchalguda, the others being tainted Satyam computers chief B Ramalinga Raju and Maoist leader Kobad Gandhi. Gandhi has been on a transit halt at Chanchalguda, Ramalinga Raju enjoys special class prisoner status. He is entitled to better diet and accommodation in a separate enclosure.

Raju and eight other accused in the multi-million Satyam accounting fraud are among 700 prisoners in the jail, located in the old city and built in 1876. The undertrial jail had shot to fame in 2007 when the bollywood actress Monica Bedi, a girl friend of gangster Abu Salem, was jailed here for several months.