TDP legislator A Revanth Reddy being taken to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) office in Hyderabad yesterday.
IANS/Hyderabad
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana police yesterday began questioning Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislator A Revanth Reddy and two others in a cash-for-vote scam.
ACB officials took custody of the legislator and his aides Sebastian Harry and Uday Simha from Cherlapally Jail.
While Revanth Reddy was taken to an undisclosed location for questioning, the other two were brought to ACB headquarters.
The legislator’s lawyers staged a protest at ACB office, demanding information about his whereabouts. Pramod Reddy, one of the lawyers, alleged that the ACB’s action was a violation of court orders.
A Hyderabad court on Friday sent the accused to ACB custody for four days. The court asked the agency to question them in the presence of their lawyers between 9am and 4pm.
Revanth Reddy, a member of Telangana Legislative Assembly, was arrested by the ACB when he was handing over Rs5mn to nominated legislator Elvis Stephenson on May 31 to make him vote for TDP-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance candidate in Telangana Legislative Council elections. The ACB, which had laid the trap on a complaint by Stephenson, also arrested the two aides.
A magistrate on June 1 sent them to judicial custody for 14 days.
The ACB is trying to elicit information from Revanth about the source of money and also about remaining Rs40.5mn he had promised as part of a Rs50mn deal. He is also likely to be questioned about the complicity of other political leaders he mentioned during the conversation with Stephenson.
The questioning assumed significance in the light of a statement by Telangana Home Minister N Narasimha Reddy that there was proof that TDP president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu spoke to Stephenson and some other legislators of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) by phone.
TRS leaders have alleged that Naidu is the mastermind in the scam and demanded that he be made the prime accused in the case.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, accompanied by ACB Director General A K Khan on Friday called on Governor E S L Narasimhan, triggering speculations about the state government’s plan to seek Naidu’s prosecution.
Narasimhan is the governor for both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The TDP government of Andhra Pradesh has hit back with Deputy Chief Minister N Chinnarajappa daring the TRS government to book Naidu and make the recording of telephone conversation public.
