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Accused in Telangana MLA poaching case remanded in judicial custody
The development came hours after the Telangana high court struck down an earlier order by the special court for Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cases that rejected the Cyberabad police’s remand request of the three accused, identified as Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simha Yaji Swamy.
Hyderabad: A special court in Hyderabad on Saturday evening remanded three people accused of allegedly attempting to poach four Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) legislators into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in judicial custody for two weeks.
The development came hours after the Telangana high court struck down an earlier order by the special court for Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cases that rejected the Cyberabad police’s remand request of the three accused, identified as Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simha Yaji Swamy.
The Cyberabad police on Thursday filed a criminal case against the three accused — who were detained with a “huge amount of cash” from a farmhouse in Hyderabad the previous night —alleging they were trying to poach four TRS legislators — Pilot Rohit Reddy, Guvvala Balaraju, B Harshavardhan Reddy and Rega Kantha Rao — into the BJP.
On Thursday night, the ACB court ordered the release of the trio saying that provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act were not applicable to them, as the police had failed to produce the evidence of seizure of cash from them while luring the ruling party’s MLAs. After the court’s directions, the police served notices to the accused under Section 41 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (pertaining to arrest without warrant) and let them off.
The police on Friday moved the high court challenging the ACB court’s rejection of their remand request.
On Saturday, a single bench of Justice Ch Sumalatha set aside the ACB court’s order citing that the police had shown enough evidence in their remand report and adding that the accused could be sent to judicial custody. The bench gave 24 hours to the accused to surrender before the Cyberabad police.
Later in the day, a team of police officers took the three into custody. Their statements were recorded at the Cyberabad police commissioner’s office in Gachibowli and later they were taken to Chevella government hospital for medical examination, said a senior police officer. After completing the formalities, they were produced before the ACB court, which sent them to two-week judicial remand.
Meanwhile, a separate bench of the high court — which was hearing a petition filed by BJP general secretary G Premender Reddy seeking a probe into the case by the Central Bureau of Investigation or a Special Investigation Team — directed that the police should not take up further investigation into the matter till the petition is disposed of.
Posting the case for further hearing on November 4, Justice Vijay Sen Reddy, however, said the court’s order would not come in the way of remanding the accused to judicial custody.
In their remand report submitted before the high court, the Cyberabad police have detailed how the accused tried to lure the four TRS legislators to switch over to the BJP.
The remand report, a copy of which HT has seen, also contained data purportedly obtained from the seized mobile phones of accused Nanda Kumar and Ramachandra Bharati, including WhatsApp chats and SMS messages they allegedly exchanged with top BJP leaders in Delhi.
The report quoted Bharati as claiming that at least 25 sitting TRS MLAs were ready to join the BJP, with the plan being to get 40. Swamy, a resident of Faridabad, agreed to pay ₹100 crore to Pilot Rohit Reddy (Tandur MLA) and ₹50 crore each to the other three MLAs — Rega Kantha Rao (Pinapaka), Guvvala Balaraju (Achampet) and Beeram Harshvardhan Reddy (Kollapur) — for defecting to the BJP, the remand report stated. The ultimate plan was to dislodge the TRS from power, the police said.
The report also mentioned how the police conducted a sting operation using Rohit Reddy. It said that the police arranged four surveillance cameras, two of which were installed in the hall of the farmhouse, besides two voice recorders, which were placed in Reddy’s kurta, the report said, adding that the entire conversation of the accused allegedly trying to lure the four MLAs was recorded.
Refusing to comment on the latest development in the case, TRS working president and state IT minister KT Rama Rao said the law would take its course. “The chief minister will react on the issue at an appropriate time,” he told reporters.
Telangana BJP in-charge Tarun Chugh told reporters in Nalgonda that the entire farmhouse episode was a “high drama enacted by the TRS to malign the BJP”. “It’s just a hoax. There is no need for the BJP to topple the KCR government,” he added.
Earlier, the Cyberabad police registered a first information report (FIR) based on a complaint by TRS MLA Reddy at the Moinabad police station. The accused have been booked under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 171-B (read with 171-E, 506 and 34) (offering bribe for electoral gains) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant section of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. HT has seen a copy of the FIR.
