Ex-Cong MLA gets bail in trafficking case

Former Congress MLA Jayaprakash Reddy, arrested for allegedly trafficking three persons to the United States with forged documents in 2004, was granted conditional bail by a court here Monday.

Reddy was directed to furnish two sureties of Rs 50,000 each and report at a police station every Sunday till November last week, station Inspector M Mattaiah said.

The former MLA was arrested on September 10 and remanded to judicial custody for 14 days for allegedly obtaining passports for himself and three other persons by claiming that they were his wife, daughter and son.

A case under the Passport Act, Immigration Act besides sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) relating to human trafficking, forgery and cheating among others had been registered against him.

According to police, Reddy accompanied the trio to the US and took Rs 15 lakh from an agent.

He had been accused of cheating the authorities at the Regional Passport office as well as the US Consulate by using his official position as an MLA then by submitting forged documents.

Meanwhile, the former Congress MLA has claimed the case was politically motivated. He accused caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his nephew Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao of hatching a plan to get rid of him ahead of the state elections.