Zeenews Bureau
Hyderabad: Suspended Special CBI Judge T Pattabhiramaa Rao, accused of granting bail to mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy allegedly for a bribe, was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday.
Pattabhirama Rao’s son and a retired district judge TV Chalapathi Rao, who are among the seven booked for having played a role in brokering the deal, were arrested last week by the ACB. Chalapathi Rao is said to be the classmate of Pattabhirama.
The accused have been booked under four sections of the IPC including 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 219 (public servant in judicial proceeding corruptly making report contrary to law) and different sections under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.
Pattabhiramaa Rao was First Additional Special Judge for CBI cases and had granted bail to Janardhan Reddy on May 11 in the OMC illegal mining case last month while rejecting the bail plea of IAS officer Y Srilakshmi, another accused. After the former Karnataka Minister was granted bail, the CBI had conducted searches at Rao`s residence and claimed to have recovered Rs 1.80 crore from a bank locker at Ashoknagar here after they obtained the locker keys from Rao`s son.
On June 14, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had dismissed the bail granted by Rao to Reddy in an illegal mining case.
Rao was placed under suspension on May 31. On the direction of Andhra Pradesh High Court, the ACB had registered a case against the suspended judge and seven others, who allegedly played a role in broking a deal with Gali Janardhan Reddy who was arrested by the CBI in September last in an alleged illegal mining case in Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) owned by him.
