Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Nov 14: Judge of the first additional chief metropolitan magistrate court here took city central branch (CCB) police to task on Tuesday November 13 for arresting Gali Janardhan Reddy without any shred of evidence. The police had arrested former minister, Janardhan Reddy, allegedly in connection with acceptance of gold from the promoters of Ambidant Company with a promise to see that they escape from the noose of legal action.

After completing the hearing of the bail petition filed by Janardhan Reddy in the case, the judge reserved orders for Wednesday.

At the outset, judge of the court, V Jagadeesh, wanted to know from the CCB advocate on the basis of which evidence Reddy has been arrested. Advocate, C H Hanumantharaya, arguing on behalf of Reddy, claimed that there is no evidence of involvement of his client in Ambidant case. He said that four persons accused in Ambidant case have secured bail, and the fifth accused too has got anticipatory bail. "As soon as CCB police served notice, Janardhan Reddy appeared for hearing. Those who lost money in the case have not named Reddy in their complaint. Reddy has not directly got involved with investment of money b y Ambidant. Reddy was arrested without pooling proper information, although Reddy has no role to play in the case," he said, and expressed suspicion about the method of investigation followed by CCB.

The advocate said that the police had said in the remand application that Ali Khan, a close confidante of Reddy, had borrowed money from first accused in the case, Fareed, and they have said that Reddy knows about it. Ali Khan, during his questioning, had told the police that he is trying to repay this loan. Therefore, he urged the judge to grant bail to Reddy.

The advocate representing the prosecution objected to the application and said that during the questioning, first accused, Fareed had mentioned Reddy's name. He said that there are evidences against the accused and sought more time for investigating officers to put together evidences. He argued for the quashing of the bail application.

The judge, expressing dissatisfaction over the arguments put forth by the public prosecutor, raised a number of questions. He also wanted to know on what basis they are linking the fraud case registered in the court with the case they are currently investigating against Reddy. He said that on the fact of it, it is evident that Reddy does not have anything to do with the case, but the police have gone ahead and arrested him. He later reserved his orders for Wednesday.