'Judge asked for Rs 500 crore for Reddy's bail'

Hyderabad: Suspended judge K Lakshminarasimha Rao and others, who had mediated with the associates of former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy to secure his bail, is learnt to have initially demanded Rs 500 crore from the mining baron. But the deal did not shape up as the then CBI special court judge B Nagamaruthi Sarma refused to grant bail.

This was revealed by a chartered accountant-cum-realtor P Krishna Prasad in his statement to the ACB on July 16. Prasad is close to Gali Janardhan Reddy’s relative Dasaradharami Reddy. According to Prasad, he met Dasaradharami Reddy in April this year in Hyderabad to discuss some real estate deals. Prasad was accompanied by his advocate friend Venkateswara Rao, who is a close relative of Lakshminarasimha Rao.

While travelling with Dasaradharami Reddy, Prasad heard his assistant Suresh talking over the phone about securing bail for Janardhan Reddy. The next day, Dasaradharami Reddy asked Prasad if he knew somebody who could get bail and the latter promptly asked his lawyer friend.

Venkateswara Rao then told of Lakshminarasimha Rao and said they could demand Rs 500 crore from the Gali group. “He said that Gali Janardhan had made thousands of crores through illegal mining and giving Rs 500 crore to secure a bail should not be a problem for him,” Prasad said in the statement.

But they later decided to scale down and asked for Rs 100 crore. Dasaradharami Reddy said he would discuss the offer with Somasekhar Reddy. But the deal did not take place as judge Nagamaruthi Sarma rejected Lakshminarasimha offer.