Former BJP minister in Karnataka denied bail

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court Tuesday rejected the bail plea of former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minister Katta Subramanaya Naidu and his son in a corruption case.Naidu and his Bangalore corporator son Katta Jagadish have been in jail since Aug 8 on charges of taking a Rs.85 crore kickback to allot 325 acres of land near Bangalore to the Itasca Software company.The court also declined bail to Itasca Managing Director S.V. Srinivas, who too is in jail along with the Kattas.Justice V. Jagannathan declined bail to the three, accepting the prosecution plea that they could "tamper with evidence" if out of jail.The three had moved the high court after the trial court had rejected their bail pleas.On Monday, the trial court judge N.K. Sudhindra Rao extended the judicial custody of the three till Sep 5.Naidu is alleged to have taken the bribe to allot the land when he was industries minister in the Janata Dal-Secular-BJP coalition in 2006-07. He quit in December 2010 when he was IT minister in the first BJP government in the state.He is presently at the government Victoria Hospital in Bangalore for treatment of diabetes and hypertension.