Court turns down J Shekhar Reddy's bail plea

CHENNAI: The

principal special court

for CBI cases in Chennai on Friday dismissed the

bail petitions

of sand mining baron and PWD contractor

J Shekhar Reddy

and his associates who were arrested on charges of cheating and corruption.

Income tax officials seized 127 kg gold and over `170 crore in cash, including new currency notes, from the premises of Reddy and his associates two weeks ago. Last week, the CBI arrested Reddy and his associates V Srinivasalu, Dindigul Rathinam, Muthupettai Ramachandran and Prem Kumar.They were accused of converting the unaccounted cash held by them in old currency notes to new notes with the help of officials of different banks.

They were booked under sections 13(1) and (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). They are also facing charges for offences under IPC including criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy .

The CBI had sought custody of the accused. However, judge G Vijayalakshmi dismissed CBI's petition too. The accused would be produced in the court on January 3 when their judicial custody ends.