The CBI claims to have recovered nearly Rs 1.80 crore here from a bank locker, the keys of which were allegedly in possession of the son of Special CBI court judge T. Pattabhiramaa Rao, who has been suspended on charges of bribery and corruption by the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The agency had carried the search based on a source based input that a deal was allegedly struck between Rao and former Karnataka Minister G. Janardhana Reddy for granting bail to the latter in the illegal mining case, CBI sources said today.
Before proceeding with the search, the CBI officials took Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court in confidence and apprised him about the input received by them, they said.
After getting a green signal from the Chief Justice, a CBI team got the locker opened and recovered nearly Rs 1.80 crore from it which the agency suspects belonged to Reddy and was allegedly given as illegal gratification, they said.
The sources claimed that the officials found the keys of the lockers to be in possession of Judge's son.
The matter was again put before the Chief Justice who ordered suspension of Rao, they said. Senior officials of the agency said there are three options - the case is probed by local police, CBI files a new FIR or adding the charges in the ongoing trial against Reddy.
They however added that any further action could take place only after getting permission from the High Court.
"First Additional Special Judge for CBI cases Pattabhirama Rao has been placed under suspension after the High Court considered the information it received against the judge in 'public interest', the High Court Registrar said in a release.
Incidentally, the judge had granted bail to former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy in the OMC illegal mining case last month while he had rejected bail to IAS officer Y. Srilakshmi, another accused in the OMC scam.