Bail-for-sale: Arrested judge says 100 crores was offered by politician's family

Hyderababd: A judge in Andhra Pradesh has alleged that a powerful politician's family had offered to pay Rs 100 crores as a bribe to ensure he was granted bail. Lakshminarasimha Rao, arrested for corruption last month, has made this claim in a confessional statement to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.

On May 11, G Janardhan Reddy, former Karnataka minister, was given bail by the judge of a CBI court in Andra Pradesh.  A few weeks later, the judge, Pattabhi Rama Rao, was arrested. CBI sources had raided his homes and offices, as also those of his associates, and recovered large amounts of cash.  

Mr Reddy, the politician, remains in jail in Karnataka in connection with another case.

There were multiple offers of kickbacks made to the judge, says the CBI.   His son and other associates met with Mr Reddy's brother at a Hyderabad hotel, as established by CCTV cameras.   The bribe they offered -and was accepted - was between 10 and 20 crores, the CBI believes.

Two other judges were also arrested earlier this month for allegedly making another offer to Mr Rao, the CBI judge. Lakshminarasimha Rao, who has said Mr Reddy's relatives said they'd be willing to pay upto 100 crores to ensure he could leave jail, and Prabhakar Rao  have been accused of trying to get the CBI judge to agree to bail in exchange for cash.  The offer he accepted was the one allegedly brokered by his son.

Lakshminarasimha Rao's confessional statement:

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