Cash-for-bail scam: Sreeramulu appears before ACB

Badava Shramika Raitha Congress founder B Sreeramulu on Tuesday appeared before the Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau in Hyderabad in connection with the ongoing probe in the cash-for-bail scandal involving jailed former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy.

Sreeramulu, a Bellary (Rural) member of legislative Assembly and close associate

of Janardhan Reddy, was served notice by the ACB which sought to record his statement in connection with the bail scandal case.

In its remand report submitted in a court after arresting Bharatiya Janata Party's Kampli MLA T H Suresh Babu in the case on July 31, the ACB had claimed that probe had revealed that Sreeramulu had called up his nephew Suresh Babu on April 21 and informed that one R Suryaprakash Babu of Hyderabad knew some judges and was ready to help in the matter of getting bail for Janardhan Reddy, and that he had already asked Suryaprakash to call him.

Apart from Suresh Babu, the ACB has also arrested Janardhan Reddy's brother and Bellary City MLA Gali Somashekhar Reddy, who, along with others, is accused of striking a deal and bribing suspended judge T Pattabhirama Rao in securing bail for the mining baron.

On May 11, Pattabhirama Rao granted bail to Janardhan Reddy while rejecting the bail plea of suspended IAS officer Y Srilakshmi in connection with the Obulapuram Mining Company scam.

Amid allegations of illegal gratification and corruption against Pattabhirama Rao, the Andhra Pradesh high court suspended him on May 31 while transferring the case to the ACB, after it was first cracked by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

The ACB, which filed a chargesheet in the case, has so far arrested three serving judges including Pattabhirama, besides eight others in the case.