Cash for bail: Karnataka MLA held by Andhra ACB

Anti-Corruption Bureau officials of Andhra Pradesh on Monday held Karnataka legislator T H Suresh Babu in Hyderabad in connection with the cash-for-bail case involving former Karnataka minister and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy.

Kampli MLA from Karnataka T H Suresh Babu was picked up by the ACB officials and questioned in the case, a top ACB official said on Monday evening without elaborating.

The ACB, probing the cash-for-bail case, on July 24 had served notices to Suresh Babu and Bellary (urban) MLA Gali Somashekhar Reddy, brother of Gali Janardhan Reddy asking them to appear before it in connection with the investigation.

The investigating agency has so far arrested nine persons including three serving judges and a retired judge in connection with the case.

Central Bureau of Investigation's T Pattabhirama Rao, who had granted bail to Janardhan Reddy on May 31, was among the three serving judges arrested by the ACB.

Somashekhar, Suresh Babu and Janardhan Reddy's relative Dasaratha Ram Reddy (who has already been arrested by ACB) have been accused of allegedly bribing Pattabhirama Rao in granting bail to Janardhan Reddy.

The case was first cracked by the CBI after Pattabhirama Rao, who was additional special judge for the CBI court, granted bail to Janardhana Reddy while rejecting the bail plea of suspended Indian Administrative Service officer Y Srilakshmi in connection with the Obulapuram Mining Corporation scam.