BENGALURU: Former BJP minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, who managed to evade arrest for more than three days, walked into the office of the Central Crime Branch police on his own and got arrested, on the advice of his advocate. But Reddy is apparently upset with his advocate for putting him in trouble.
Though various teams were on the lookout for Reddy since Wednesday, he had managed to hoodwink the police. But trouble started when the CCB police issued a notice to him on Friday asking him to appear before them by Sunday.
Despite an anticipatory bail petition filed in a city court and a plea to quash the FIR filed in the Karnataka High Court, it is said that Reddy took a step that backfired on him by appearing before the police.
While the police were on the lookout for him, Reddy sent a video to media houses saying that he was not absconding and that he was in Bengaluru itself. He also said he will appear before the police and did so. It is said that everything was done as per his advocate’s advice.
But by Sunday morning, after coming to know that he will be arrested, Reddy seemed to have regretted following his advocate’s advice.
“He was very disturbed when informed that he will be arrested. Till then, he was speaking calmly to his advocate. But once he came to know about the arrest, he blamed the advocate for his plight. The advocate tried to convince him, but he was in no mood to listen. Finally, the advocate told Reddy that even he was unaware that the police had strong evidence against him and apologised to him,” a source in the CCB said.
“If he had not appeared before us, he would have got some more time and also he would have got relief if the court had ruled in his favour. But, not knowing about the evidence gathered against him, Reddy landed in jail,” the source added.
Reddy is inmate no. 10902
The Parappana Agrahara central prison has given Under Trial Prisoner (UTP) No. 10902 to Janaradhana Reddy. It is learnt that he has been given a room in the high-security block in the prison where he was staying earlier when he was arrested in connection with the illegal mining case.