Former K'taka IT minister jailed in graft case

BANGALORE, INDIA: Former IT minister of Karnataka, Katta Subramanya Naidu and his son Katta Jagadish were on Monday sent to judicial custody in a corruption case after their bail pleas were rejected by a court here.

Additional City Civil and Sessions Court Judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao refused to give them bail and ordered they be taken into custody.

The two will be in jail till a higher court grants them bail, Special Public Prosecutor Pramod Chandra told reporters.

The Naidu's are accused of taking a kickback of Rs.87 crore from Itasca Software for allotting 325 acres of land near Bangalore.

There are seven other accused in the case including the software company's managing director S.V. Srinivas, whose bail plea was rejected Monday.

Subramanya Naidu is charged with clearing Itasca's application for land and flouting rules when he was industries minister in the Janata Dal-Secular-BJP coalition government in 2006-07.

On December 3 last year, he quit as IT minister in the B.S. Yeddyurappa ministry, a day after police attached to Lokayukta (ombudsman) filed the case against him and others.

Naidu's son is a BJP councillor in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (Greater Bangalore City Corporation). He was arrested in October 2010 for trying to bribe a witness. He was on bail in this case.