Karnataka MLA sent to 14 days judicial custody

Somashekhara Reddy joins his brother Gali at Chanchalguda jail

A Special Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Court in Andhra Pradesh on Monday remanded Gali Somashekhara Reddy, MLA and  brother of tainted mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, in the cash-for-bail scam, to 14 days of judicial custody. He was then sent to Chanchalguda jail.

 The Karnataka MLA appeared before the ACB in Andhra Pradesh after a long cat-and-mouse game with the investigators in the bribe-for- bail of Janardhan Reddy, in which three judges—K Narasimha Rao, D Prabhakar Reddy and a retired sessions judge, TV Chalapathi Rao, a Karnataka BJP MLA—are already cooling their heels in two jails in Hyderabad.

The Bellary urban legislator from Karnataka—the accused number two in the case involving a CBI judge of Andhra Pradesh—was arrested after a four day long questioning by the investigaive agency at their office here.

However, Somasekhara Reddy’s counsels have filed an anticipatory bail petition at the ACB Special Court on July 26, and the same is pending for judgment slated for 9 August.

Among the eight accused in the cash-for-bail scam, Somasekhar Reddy was the last accused to be arrested. In the  third week of July, the ACB had issued summons to both Somasekhar Reddy and Kampli MLA, T H Suresh Babu, to appear before the investigating officer within three days. However, instead of appearing before the ACB, the MLAs moved anticipatory bail petition. But Suresh Babu appeared before the CBI, a week ahead of Somasekhar Reddy’s arrests.

The CBI, in a sting operation  caught the CBI court judge, T Parrabhirama Rao, of having favoured the illegal mining baron with a bail on May 12 after accepting over Rs 10 crore as bribe. The AP high court had suspended judge Pattabhirama Rao who was later arrested along with his son. Huge cash was seized from the bank lockers of Rao’s son.

Based on the confession of the accused, Dasharatha Reddy, a relative of Gali, was later arrested by police for their involvement in the bail for cash racket. The ACB police have also indicated that the Karnataka MLA B Sreeramulu is also one of the suspects in the scam.

Former tourism minister in Yeddyurappa goverentment, Gali, was arrested on September 5, 2011 in a Rs 5,000 crore illegal iron-ore mining  scam for allegedly exploiting his nexus with the ex-Andhra Pradesh CM YSR to get permission to transport the illegally mined ore.