Thaindian News

Hyderabad, July 12 (IANS) A city court Thursday sent two suspended judges to judicial custody till July 26 in cash-for-bail scandal involving mining baron and former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) produced Lakshminarasimha Rao, chief judge of small causes court at City Civil Courts, Hyderabad and D. Prabhakar Rao, third additional district and sessions judge, Srikakulam, before the ACB court here.

The court sent them to 14-day judicial custody. They were later shifted to jail.

The ACB had last month arrested suspended Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge T. Pattabhirama Rao and retired judge T. V. Chalapathi Rao in the case.

According to ACB, Lakshminarasimha Rao and Prabhakar Rao approached Pattabhirama Rao, offering huge bribe on behalf of Janardhana Reddy’s family to grant bail to him in illegal mining case.

Janardhana Reddy’s brother Somasekhara Reddy, who met Lakshminarasimha Rao and Prabhakar Rao in May at the house of Ravi Suryaprakash Babu, a realtor, in Hyderabad and offered Rs.20 crore for the bail.

Pattabhirama Rao rejected the offer but accepted the one later made by his friend and retired judge Chalapathi Rao, who was approached by Yadagiri Rao, a man with a criminal record.

The latest arrests were made by ACB after Babu, who was taken into custody two days ago, revealed the names of the two judges. The ACB has registered a separate case against the three.

The agency had last month booked eight people including Somasekhara Reddy and Suresh Babu, both legislators from Karnataka, and Janardhana Reddy’s relative Dasarathrami Reddy. Out of the eight, the ACB has so far arrested Pattabhirama Rao, his son Ravichandra and Chalapathi Rao.

The state high court on May 31 suspended Pattabhirama Rao, who had granted bail to Janardhana Reddy on May 11. The orders were struck down by the high court last month.

Janardhana Reddy is currently lodged in Bangalore jail as he is standing trial in another mining case in Karnataka.