Lookout notices against 2 State MLAs in mining case

The Anti-Corruption Bureau probing the cash for bail scam involving former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy has issued lookout notices against two Karnataka legislators in an effort to prevent them from fleeing the country.

The arrest of Karnataka MLAs Gali Somasekhar Reddy (Bellary Urban) and T H Suresh Babu (Kampli) seems imminent after all the accused in the bail scam were held, particularly after advocate Aditya surrendered before the ACB court on Thursday.

Dasarathrami Reddy, an associate of the legislators, was arrested on Friday. “We
have alerted all international airports in the country about the two Karnataka MLAs. It's a normal practice,” a top ACB officer said.

There were speculations that the ACB was delaying the arrest of the MLAs due to procedural difficulties as it involves arresting legislators and that too from another state. However, an ACB officer said they were just gathering crucial evidence like source of the bribe amount to nail the legislators.

“Like any other probing agency, the ACB can arrest any accused from any part of the country. In case of the arrest of an MLA, we just have to notify the Speaker of the Assembly concerned,” an official said.

The ACB has so far registered two cases in the cash-for-bail scam. In the first case, suspended CBI judge T Pattabhirama Rao, his son Ravi Chandra, retired judge T V Chalapati Rao, history-sheeter Yadgiri Rao, advocate Aditya, two Karnataka MLAs and their associate Dasaratharami Reddy have been named accused for conspiring and securing bail fraudulently for Gali Janardhan Reddy.

The second case was booked against suspended judges Prabhakar Rao, Lakshminarasimha Rao, their associate Suryaprakash Rao, who also tried to strike a deal between Gali’s group and CBI judges but failed. However, Gali brothers for whom the judges were bribed are yet to be named accused in the second case.

Sources say that given the amount of evidence against them, ultimately their names would be added to the accused list along with some others.