CBI intensifies probe into Reddy bail scandal

Investigation team visits prisons to get details of Janardhanas visitors

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has intensified its investigation into the bail scandal in which the family of former minister G Janardhana Reddy is accused of bribing the Hyderabad CBI Special Court judge Pattabhirama Rao, to secure bail for Reddy in the Obulapuram Mining Company case.

A special CBI team from Hyderabad visited the Central Prisons, Parappana Agrahara where Reddy is presently lodged and gathered details of persons in constant touch with him recently. Sources said the CBI team visited the prisons on May 30, the day when CBI also filed a charge sheet in the Associated Mining Company case.

The team gathered details from the visitors’ book about visitors to Reddy just before and after May 11, when he was granted bail by the Hyderabad CBI court. The CBI team has also taken the CCTV footage of the cameras installed at the prisons main gate and also at the high security division where Reddy has been lodged. They have also scrutinised all outgoing calls from the public phone in the prisons and are tracking mobile phone calls that were made or received through the mobile phone towers in the area.

Sources said the CBI officials have information that the money paid to the judge was
sourced from two different locations – one in Bellary and the other in Koppal district.
They also have clues as to who shifted the money to Hyderabad and in which vehicle. Sources said the CBI is closely looking at the interactions of the Reddy brothers - G Karunakara Reddy and G Somashekara Reddy - with Janardhana Reddy in the prisons. CBI joint director V V Lakshminarayana is leading the investigation. Sources said CBI has asked the State police to keep a vigil on certain people who have gone underground since the scandal surfaced.

Somashekara denies link

MLA G Somashekara Reddy on Sunday said he and his brother Janardhana Reddy had no connection with the ‘bribe for bail’ incident in which a CBI court judge was suspended by the Andhra Pradesh High Court, for allegedly accepting bribe to grant bail to the mining baron.

“We vehemently deny any connection with the suspension of the CBI judge on corruption charges and we have nothing to do with it,” Somashekara said in a press release.

“Politically motivated”

He said a “politically motivated” CBI was trying to link the episode with their case to prejudice the minds of judges of the Hyderabad High Court, as the matter was coming up before them on June 5.

The central investigative agency has charged the CBI special judge T Pattabhirama Rao with taking bribe for granting bail to the mining baron in the illegal mining case involving the Obulapuram Mining Company.