Cash-for-bail: Hyderabad court sends Janardhana Reddy to jail

A city court Tuesday sent former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy to judicial custody till Oct 5 in the cash-for-bail bribery case.The

mining baron, who was brought here from a Bangalore jail Monday night, was presented in the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court here.After

the court remanded him to judicial custody, Reddy was shifted to Chanchalguda Central Jail. He was brought to Hyderabad Monday night on a

prisoner transit warrant.The court on Sep 14, while taking cognizance of the chargesheet filed by the ACB, had issued the prisoner transit warrant seeking production of Janardhana Reddy before it.Janardhan

Reddy's brother and member of Karnataka assembly from Bellary G. Somashekhara Reddy, member of Karnataka assembly from Kampli T.H. Suresh

Babu, and suspended judges D. Prabhakar Rao and K. Lakshminarasimha Rao

were also produced in the court, which adjourned the hearing till Oct 5.The accused were allowed to meet their family members in the court premises. Janardhana Reddy's followers, including former Karnataka

minister and Badava Shramika Raitha (BSR) Congress chief B. Sriramulu reached the court to call on him. However, Sriramulu, whose role in the case is also under probe by the ACB, was not allowed to meet him.It

was in Chanchlaguda Jail that Reddy spent six months in the Obulapuram Mining Case (OMC) before he was shifted to Bangalore in March this year in connection with another illegal mining case.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested Janardhana Reddy Sep 5 last year from Bellary in Karnataka in the OMC case relating to the alleged illegal mining of iron ore in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.OMC

managing director B.V. Srinivasa Reddy, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Y. Srilakshmi and former director of mines V.D. Rajagopal were also arrested in the case.The cash-for-bail case relates to

the bail granted by CBI special court judge T. Pattabhirama Rao to Janardhana Reddy in the OMC case in May this year after allegedly receiving Rs.10 crore as bribe.Earlier in the day, the high court granted bail to Pattabhirama Rao, Somasekhara Reddy and Lakshminarasimha Rao.