Former Karnataka minister and mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, who had been out of jail on bail in the illegal mining case of Obulapuram, is back in the news.
On Monday, Gali appeared in ACB court in cash for bail scam. Reddy who was jailed in the illegal mining case in Chanchalguda was granted bail after he believed to have offered crores of rupees to the CBI special court judge to get bail for him in April 2012.
Interestingly, former CBI court judge B Naga Maruti Sharma came to the court and gave a statement to this effect.
He told the court that associates of Gali Janardhan Reddy had approached him and tried to convince him to grant bail to Gali when he served as CBI judge.
Sharma told the court he was offered Rs 40 crore to grant bail to Gali Janardhan Reddy that he rejected. The case was adjourned to September 12.
In fact, Rs 40 crore in cash just to grant bail to any person was too tempting an offer even for the honest person. But Sharma refused it boldly, when Janardhan Reddy’s close relative G Dasarath Ram Reddy approached him through a former high court registrar.
Later, the ACB authorities arrested and questioned Dasarath Ram Reddy. Justice Sharma was also questioned as a witness in the case for further evidence.
Sharma also probed sensational cases of alleged disproportionate case of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, apart from illegal mining case of former Karnataka minister and mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy.
However, Gali’s men managed to bribe another judge T Pattabhirama Rao, who replaced Sharma when he went on leave. And he succumbed to just Rs 5 crore to grant bail to Gali!