Bengaluru: Former Karnataka minister and mining baron G Janardhana Reddy, arrested in a ponzi scheme case, was granted bail by a Bengaluru court on Wednesday.
"It is allowed," Sixth Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate V Jagadeesh said in his order on the bail plea of Reddy, who was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the city police on Saturday. A magistrate's court here had remanded Reddy to judicial custody till November 24 on Sunday.
Reddy was arrested following a marathon questioning after he appeared before the CCB, ending his elusive run for three days.
The CCB had been on the look out for Reddy, who was declared absconding by the police last week in connection with a transaction worth crores of rupees allegedly linked to a Ponzi scheme fraud involving hundreds of crores of rupees.
The case pertains to a ponzi scheme by Bengaluru based company Ambident Marketing Private Limited. The company allegedly duped thousands of people promising huge profit for their deposits.
Reddy is alleged to have promised to shield the accused Syed Ahmed Fareed and his son Ashfaq, for which he received 57kg of gold worth Rs 18 crore through his aide Ali Khan, who was also arrested on Sunday.
He has been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 204 (destruction of evidence), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating), as also under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.
Chandrashekar RP, Reddy's lawyer, said there was no connection between Ambident and Reddy. "Even then the CCB went ahead to arrest him. The court has accepted our plea." Reddy was released on bail against two people's surety and a bond of rupees one lakh.
The court had asked the CCB Tuesday whether there were any complaints against Reddy and whether the charges against him were filed merely on the basis of a statement of an accused.
The defence counsel had questioned the necessity of arresting Reddy when the courts had granted bail to five accused in the case.
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