The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Saturday began arresting the accused in the cash-for-bail scam involving mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy by picking up a retired district judge, T.V. Chalapathi Rao, and the son of the suspended judge of a CBI court here, T. Pattabhirama Rao.
Chalapathi Rao and Pattabhirama Rao's son Ravichandra were arrested following raids on their houses at Ashoknagar and Banjara Hills here respectively during the early hours. A team of officials was said to have whisked away Ravichandra in their car to a branch of Corporation Bank at Ashoknagar after searching his house. He was issued five lockers in the bank a day before Janardhan Reddy was granted bail by Pattabhirama Rao. Both the arrested persons were later taken away for questioning.
A press release said raids were also conducted on the houses of Chalapathi Rao's brothers – T.S.T. Saibabu and T. Srinivas Rao – in Hyderabad and Chilakaluripet in Guntur district respectively. The house of an advocate here E. Uma Maheshwar Rao, who argued the bail petition of the mining baron was searched too. His junior T. Aditya was one of the eight accused persons in the case.
A senior ACB official told The Hindu that only incriminating material but not cash was recovered in the five locations that were raided.
The CBI which initially investigated the case collected Rs. 1.60 crore from the lockers of Ravichandra and Rs. 1.14 crore from Balaji Rao, another brother of Chalapathi Rao. It was rumoured during the day that an ACB team had left for Bellary in search of Janardhan Reddy's brother Somasekhar Reddy and Kampli MLA T.H. Suresh Babu.
Published - June 17, 2012 12:55 am IST
