http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/feb29/foand.htm

Andhra millionaire may face rape charge also
From Shyam Bhatia
DH News Service
BERKELEY, (California), Feb 28

The Andhra property millionaire and restaurant owner, who has been charged in a California court with importing Indian workers for immoral purposes, could face additional charges of statutory rape, according to Berkeley police.

Mr Lakireddy Balireddy, originally from Velvadam in Andhra, is currently free on a 10 million dollar bond. His son, Vijaykumar, has also been charged with helping his father smuggle Indians into the US on temporary work visas.

Mr Reddy senior was arrested and detained last month (January) because police believed he was about to leave for India. When they searched his home they found a suitcase full of gold jewellery and solid gold bars with Swiss markings. They also found 55,000 dollars in cash in one of Mr Reddy`s offices.

Lawyers for both men say they are totally innocent and have asked for all charges to be dropped. Mr Reddy senior`s attorney, Ted Cassman, described his client as a ''law abiding citizen who has lived in Berkeley for 40 years.

''Mr Reddy is a man of integrity, well known and well respected in his community. The inflamatory allegations that have been lodged against Mr Reddy are untrue.``

But Berkeley police say they are considering additional charges that would require Mr Reddy to appear before a California state court. ''He has not appeared on state charges,`` says Berkeley police captain Bobby Miller.

''Yes, we are looking at statutory rape charges. This part of the charge is done through the local district attorney`s office. We have been working through the district attorney's office; its been cumbersome and no decision has been made.``

The Reddy case has shocked the large Indian community, estimated at 170,000, who live in and around Silicon Valley in California. Mr Reddy, a property tycoon who owns something in the region of 1,000 apartments as well as the Pasand restaurants in Berkeley and Santa Clara, is estimated to have a monthly income of one million dollars.

Back home in his Andhra village of Velvadam Mr Reddy is credited with building two elementary schools, a high school, a hospital wing and a bus shelter. An engineering college in a nearby town also bears the Reddy name.

The investigation against Mr Reddy was triggered by the death last November of a 17 year old girl, Seetha Vemireddy, who lived in one of the Reddy apartments with her 15 year old sister, Lalitha, and another 18 year old girl from Andhra who was also brought to the US by Mr Reddy.

No foul play is suspected in Seetha`s case. It was only when police started interrogating the surviving sister, Lalitha, and the 18 year old that the story started to get murky.

The 18 year old, who has not been charged with any offence and who cannot be named for legal reasons, has allegedly told investigators that her impoverished father sold her to Mr Reddy when she was 14 years old. She further alleges she has had a sexual relationship with him ever since.

Lalitha has allegedly told investigators that she too has had sex with Mr Reddy ever since she was turned over to him at the age of 12.

Berkeley police say they were initially hampered in their investigations because of language and cultural barriers. The two girls and Mr Reddy`s other employees only speak Telugu and it took police some time to get hold of a reliable interpreter.

The Reddy case has led to calls for more outreach services to be extended to those Indian women who are totally dependent on their employers because they come to the US without speaking any English and without any experience of living in a foreign country.

Women`s activists in the area say they are used to hearing stories of how Indian women are abused by both employers and husbands. In one celebrated case that never reached the media in India a 21 year old Indian girl was hospitalised with fractures because her parents turned down a dowry demand from her software engineer husband who had emigrated to the US from New Delhi.