The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Thursday arrested two District Judges, K. Lakshminarasimha Rao and T. Prabhakar Rao, in connection with the ongoing investigation into the bail scam involving former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, now in judicial custody.
With this, three serving judges and a retired judge, besides three others have been arrested so far by the ACB in this case. Both Justice Lakshminarasimha Rao and Justice Prabhakar Rao were detained for questioning at the ACB headquarters here after their arrest on Thursday noon.
The two judges are accused of making parallel attempts to secure bail for the mining baron, Janardhana Reddy in the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) case.
While on the one hand, a retired judge, T. V. Chalapathi Rao, struck a deal with the CBI Judge T. Pattabhirama Rao to secure the bail on payment of Rs. 5 crore, Justice Lakshminarasimha Rao used the services of Justice Prabhakar Rao with the same objective for Rs. 10 crore. But, Justice Pattabhi Roa favoured Mr. Chalapathi Rao’s offer as he felt that it was less risky.
Justice Lakshminarasimha Rao is the Chief Judge of Small Causes Court in the City Civil Courts complex and Justice Prabhakar Rao was the Family Judge-cum-third Additional District Judge in Srikakulam. The latter was summoned here late on Wednesday night and taken into custody.
It may be recalled that Justice Pattabhirama Rao was arrested by the ACB in June after the CBI detected irregularities in the grant of bail to Gali Janardhana Reddy. The investigating agency informed the A. P. High Court which ordered suspension of the Judge and transferred the probe to the ACB on the point of jurisdiction.
ACB sleuths recovered a sum of Rs. 2.75 crore from Justice Pattabhirama Rao and Justice Chalapathi Rao besides detecting a further sum of Rs. 9. 5 crore in the possession of P. Yadagiri Rao, a rowdy sheeter, who allegedly tried to broker the deal.
