Gali gets his Rolls-Royce but now ACB wants him

The CBI court here has permitted the family members of Gali Janardhana Reddy to collect the expensive Rolls Royce car CBI sleuths had seized when they arrested the former mining baron.

Responding to a petition by Janardhana Reddy that the helicopter and the car should be returned to his family as they would gather rust if not used, the court has permitted the family members to first take the car back. But they were directed to deposit an amount of Rs 2.45 crore for getting possession of the car. The court has however not taken any decision on the helicopter and jewellery seized by the agency from Bellary at the time of his arrest a year ago.

Meanwhile a special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court here on Friday issued a prisoner-on-transit warrant for production of former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy on September 25 in the cash-for-bail case. The tainted mining baron is presently in a jail in Bangalore in connection with another mining case. The warrant would enable the ACB officials to bring him before the court here.

The judge, after taking into consideration the charge sheet filed by Andhra Pradesh ACB against seven persons accused of trying to bribe suspended judge T Pattabhirama Rao for giving bail to Reddy in Obulapuram Mining Company case, said that Reddy and others be produced before the court on September 25.

Two district judges K Lakshminarasimha Rao and T Prabhakar Rao figure in the present charge sheet. Other accused in this case include Bellary City MLA Gali Somashekhar Reddy – Reddy’s brother, Kampli MLA T H Suresh Babu and  Dasaratharam Reddy (a relation of Reddy’s). The court has sought their presence too. The ACB, on August 13, had filed its first charge sheet against Rao and seven others for entering into a conspiracy to facilitate bail for Janardhana Reddy.