Law minister Erasu Pratap Reddy is putting up an innocent face on the reports that he had mediated with suspended CBI judge T Pattabhirama Rao in securing bail to mining tycoon Gali Janardhan Reddy in the illegal mining case.

Erasu came to the camp office of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to explain his version on the reports of his involvement in the bail scam, but had to go back as he could not meet the chief minister. He told the media that he was no way connected with the bail scandal. “Just because I happened to be a distant relative of Gali Janardhan Reddy, it does not mean I had helped him in getting the bail. The media is trying to malign my image. If I am proved guilty in the case, I will quit politics,” the minister said.

Asked why he had gone to Chanchalguda jail to meet Gali Janardhan Reddy when he was in the judicial remand, Erasu said he had gone to jail not to meet Gali, but only as part of his official duty. “I have been in politics for several years. My father was an MP and a minister. There was not a single allegation against my family in our long political history,” he said.