The Reddy brothers, in the dock for illegal mining, won a small reprieve on Monday when the Andhra Pradesh High Court granted bail to Bellary city MLA, Gali Somashekhar Reddy, who has been behind bars for his alleged role in the “cash for bail” scam. Released from the Cherlapally central prison in Hyderabad, Mr Somashekhar Reddy is expected to reach Bellary on Tuesday, according to sources close to him. He had secured bail in one of the cases registered against him on September 26, but could not be released as his application for bail in the second was still pending before the court.
Meanwhile, his younger brother and former minister, Gali Janardhan Reddy, currently lodged in the Chanchalaguda central prison in Hyderabad, has also approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court for bail in the same case. The court is likely to consider the second bail application of Kampli MLA, T H Suresh Babu, nephew of the Reddy brothers' close associate , B Sreeramulu in in the next couple of days, claim sources. Mr Suresh Babu, who is in the Cherlapally central prison has already secured bail in the first FIR registered against him by the Anti-Corruption Bureau , but needs to be given bail in the second case against him to come out of prison.
Besides Mr Somashekar Reddy, the high court had on September 26 granted bail to suspended special CBI court judge, T Pattabhi Rama Rao and judge K Lakshmi Narasimha Rao for their alleged role in the cash for bail scam. Hearing their bail petitions, Justice Samudrala Govindarajulu said the question of tampering with evidence did not arise at this stage as the Anti-Corruption Bureau had filed the chargesheet and the lower court had recorded the statements of some of the witnesses. The petitioners held responsible positions and were unlikely to flee the country, he said.